Dateline: Home Study

Rice Is Under Fire as Mideast Peace Falters, by Neil King, Jr., Wall Street Journal, Friday, 25 August 2006, p. A4

Well Rice and Bush are surprise, under fire. When Israel attacked Hezbollah the world screamed for peace. Our European called for UN intervention. My own Presbyterian Church (USA) decried the attacks by Israel because of the harm that was being inflicted on the Lebanese people, revealing once again that Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick should keep his pen capped when it comes to international affairs. So, Bush and Rice went to the UN and brokered a peace deal.

Now that we have the peace deal, our European allies still are reluctant to provide the peace-keeping force (sound familiar?) and Rice and Bush are being criticized for not effecting a long-term solution in the Middle East. So, if you go to war to effect peace, you should declare peace. If on the other hand you declare peace, you should go to war.

I’m personally disappointed because I thought Israel was going to really cripple the terrorist Hezbollah organization once and for all. But alas, they were called down by the US. It seems to me that the US policy is inconsistent and that is what bothers me. Perhaps we changed to appease our friends in Europe but their reluctance to supply peace-keepers is perhaps an indication that we really should ignore them and do what we think is right.