Friday, July 14, 2006

Why Does Bush Wants Hezbollah Tied to Lebanese Government?

Why did Tony Snow say one area of common ground in the G-8 summit is a Mideast resolution that “Hezbollah cannot act independently of the Lebanese government”. On the surface it appears President Bush wants the Shiite political party to take direction and orders from the Lebanese government. The thinking must be that the fledgling democracy will order the return of the two captured Israeli soldiers.

What alternative scenarios exist? Hezbollah could ignore the Lebanese government and continue acting against Israel. This is more likely as its leader today declared open warfare in a televised speech to the Lebanese people. Should the G-8 resolution pass and Hezbollah act unilaterally, does that give the world the right to interpret their actions as those of the Lebanese government? If so, then an official state to state war could commence.

Right now, most of the world looks at the conflict as Israel steamrolling an out of control political party. They see Lebanon’s democratic government as unfairly caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. If Tony’s encouraging resolution makes it, Hezbollah and the Lebanese government could be inextricably tied which sets the stage for an official world sanctioned Israeli rout.

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