Condi: Cease Fire Is A False Promise

As many both here in America and in the international community at large rush to demand an immediate cease fire in the Israeli/Hezbollah hostilities Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice lays out why such knee-jerk demands are foolish.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected the "false promise" of an immediate cease-fire in the spreading war between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday and said she would seek long-term peace during a trip to the Mideast beginning Sunday.

The top U.S. diplomat defended her decision not to meet with Hezbollah leaders or their Syrian backers during her visit.

"Syria knows what it needs to do, and Hezbollah is the source of the problem," Rice said as she previewed her trip, which begins with a stop in Israel.

Rice said the United States is committed to ending the bloodshed, but not before certain conditions are met. The Bush administration has said that Hezbollah must first turn over the two Israeli soldiers whose capture set off the 10-day-old violence, and stop firing missiles into Israel.

"We do seek an end to the current violence, we seek it urgently. We also seek to address the root causes of that violence," Rice said. "A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."

That last is a staunch rejection of the "peace at any cost" mentality.

Those calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah are naive, short-sighted and foolish. Their calls for "instant peace" are akin to a doctor treating a broken leg by doing nothing but issuing pain killers. Sure it may put the patient at ease, but it doesn't do much to help the longer term prospects of the patient either.

If Israel ceases attacks before Hezbollah is forced to return the soldiers it kidnapped and submit to other sanctions (like the totally unenforced UN Resolution 1559 calling for the disarmament and disbanding of Hezbollah) it will be nothing short of an all-out victory for the terrorists. Hezbollah will have succeeded in hitting Israel while being protected from any serious consequences by hiding behind international apologists at the UN and elsewhere.

The only cure for poor behavior (and all but the most blinkered whack jobs out there will agree that Hezbollah is, at least, guilty of poor behavior) is to be held responsible for that behavior. This assignment of responsibility as a deterrent to the sort of activity that is to be prevented is present everywhere in civilized society around the globe. When we don't want drivers to operate vehicles while inebriated we create drunk driving laws that hold them responsible for their negligence by putting them in jail. When we don't want people to steal we write laws that put them in jail for stealing.

When people become grossly overweight we don't allow them to blame their obesity on the restaurants they choose to eat at. Well, not yet anyway, but you get my point.

The key to a long term solution in the middle east is to stop condemning Israel (and America in the larger sense given Afghanistan and Iraq) for holding these oppressive, fanatical monsters in the region responsible for their actions. The problems in the middle east have never been the fault of a lack of diplomacy but a lack of retribution for those (like Hezbollah and others) who use the diplomatic process as cover for their nefarious deeds.