Condi Steps Up .... Not

This morning the State Department announced that it had completed a draft U.N Resolution calling for a multinational force in Lebanon. The draft drew considerable criticism from the Arab world because it does not require that Israel pull out of Lebanon, what seems like a rather reasonable and obvious request. Condelezza Rice responded that " we will see who wants peace..."

That is the most disingenuous piece of spin. Who wants peace? This from a Secretary of State that waited six days to make any move on the Israeli invasion and then waited another week before actually doing anything. In the meantime, Southern Lebanon was demolished and hundreds of innocent Lebanese killed, all because we wanted to give our ally more time to soften up its enemy.

I remember when Jimmy Carter was award the Nobel Prize for the Camp David Accords. I remember when President Clinton brokered the longest cease fire in modern Middle Eastern history. Now we have abandoned the role of peacemaker in favor of acting as a set up man for our client state, Israel. The change in character from peacemaker to partisan is cynical to say the least and likely would have been unnecessary had we not decided to assume the role of occupying army in Iraq.

I fear that by siding with Israel in such an obvious way -- to the detriment of Lebanese civilians -- we simply solidify our enemies' criticism of us.