Revelatory?
Odd how people at times of great historical moment, or under great personal stress tend to reveal themselves, their subliminal tendencies, despite the helpful cover of a public persona quite at odds with what can be revealed through an instinctual, unguarded response.Thus we have Kofi Annan, currently the world's first-order diplomat, the United Nation's chief representative of peace uttering his belief that Israel deliberately and with full intent bombed a UN emplacement inside the border between Lebanon and Israel. Israel's immediate reaction was one of aghast incredulity that they could conceivably be so quickly condemned.
Why Israel remains so touchingly concerned about how representatives of the United Nations, that august body set up by a trusting world to oversee wordly matters in an attempt to bring about universal peace (not in our lifetimes, apparently, not with the current membership and set-up of yet another failed human enterprise) see it through their miasma of preconceived animus is beyond me personally.
(But that is another story. And like most people who hope for the best while still recognizing the beast living close to the surface of most human societies, the troubling failings residing within most political regimes regardless of their stripe, the all-too-human proclivity to emotional hysteria wiping out our ability to think and act logically, I still recognize the potential within that body whose mandate is to do its best for all of mankind. It is the only universal instrument we have, we tired and weak human beings, to attempt to live among one another with something approaching tolerance and goodwill.)
Yet here we have the elected head of the United Nations, its highly respected and trusted chief, pointing a rather impulsive finger of blame at the single state-entity within its membership which is perennially held to account for matters inconsistent with its vision, priorities and orientation among nations. To Canada's new Prime Minister's ongoing credit in his support of the State of Israel, Stephen Harper has expressed his sorrow at the tragic events, while still maintaining his belief that the bombing was inadvertent.
Among the four United Nations observers at the bombed southern Lebanese post was a Canadian, Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener of Kingston, evidently a much-admired, experienced exponent of peacekeeping, now dead as a result of the bombing. Yet Prime Minister Harper stated:
"This regrettable event underscores the dangers that our Canadian Forces members face in all the roles they undertake, to serve our country with distinction and honour and provide assistance to citizens in countries far from our shores."Noble words of understanding and patience, to await an acceptable explanation from an official enquiry which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in proferring his "deep regrets" to Canada's Prime Minister and the citizens of Canada, has promised would follow, promising also Israel's complete co-operation with other enquiries. Mr. Harper has made it quite clear, with no equivocation, that he does not share the opinion of Mr. Annan:
"I certainly doubt that to be the case (deliberate targetting of the UN post by Israel), given that Israel has been co-operating with us in our evacuation efforts, in our attempts to move Canadian citizens out of Lebanon, and also trying to keep our own troops that are on the ground involved in that evacuation out of harm's way. So, I seriously doubt that," he said, in response to pointed questioning by the media.For that matter there have already been revelations which appear to set the stage for a fuller understanding of the situation. It has been revealed through the media that Major Hess-von Kruedener wrote an e-mail just days previous to the bombing that Hezbollah was using the post as a "shield" to fire rockets into Israel. Retired Major-General Lewis MacKenzie characterizes Major Kruedener's e-mails as obvious allusions to Hezbollah's tactics.
"What I can tell you is this," he wrote in an e-mail to CTV dated July 18. "We have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery and aerial bombing.These words, the final sentence in particular are obvious indications that Israeli strikes were poised at Hezbollah, explained Major-General MacKenzie: "What that means is, in plain English, "We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said. Major Hess-von Kruedener, a Canadian Forces infantry officer with the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, the sole Canadian serving as a U military observer in Lebanon was no stranger to war and the conditions prevailing in war-time conditions.
"The closest artillery has landed within 2 metres of our position and the closest 100 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 metres from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity."
Yet a senior UN official after being queried with respect to the observations and conclusions reached by Major Kruedener, denied that there had been a Hezbollah presence in the close vicinity of the UN base, effectively denying the obvious contradiction with the UN position.
"At the time, there had been no Hezbollah activity reported in the area", he said. "So it was quite clear they were not going after other targets; that, for whatever reason, our position was being fired upon...The position was clearly marked, and they pounded the hell out of us."Clearly an inexplicable denial of the observations of his own UN observer. Retired Captain Peter Forsberg, who did two UN tours between 1993 and 1995 during the Bosnian war added his opinion that it seemed clear Hezbollah was using a terrorist tactic of purposely drawing out enemy forces near a neutral site. And the fall-out of that tactic is also clear: create a situation which places its adversary in an inambiguously deplorable light and which gains it the immediate censure of the UN.
At this juncture it would be most interesting to hear from United Nations representatives, Kofi Annan in particular exactly why it was not seen as an expedient move to remove all UN observers from their south Lebanon posts where the danger of just such an occurrence could have been foreseen by anyone who knows the likelihood of disaster being visited upon unarmed non-combatants in a war zone. A deliberate move to coerce Israel by maintaining a post sheltering vulnerable targets? If so, this is a situation clearly at odds with normal UN practise where in other war zones UN personnel evacuation is swift and unequivocal.
Explain these little condundrums, please do.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, July 27, 2006
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