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No one likes to be occupied or have foreign troops in their country in the capacity that a peace-keeper will enter Lebanon. However, without a climate of neutrality and level handedness the peace we created between Egypt and Israel in Sinai would not have worked. The peace in the Balkans would not have worked...........

The Arabs see the US as being on Israel's side. We are not viewed as neutral, and frankly we are not. We are tied to Israel culturally, economically, and politically. We helped create Israel, we have over 2,500 American citizens in the IDF, we arm, and back Israel where and how we can. We are not neutral. I am not even neutral. I am pro-Israel. We are not the answer -

Just like we see this as a war against radical Islam, they see this as a crusade against them. Hezbollah was founded by Iran and its sole purpose was to ultimately rid the region of non-Islamic influences. Something Iran has been pursuing vehemently since Khomeini took power and began his Islamic revolution. Putting a Christian soldier, even if he’s Dutch, German, Polish or even from Sweden in Lebanon is not the same as having a Muslim soldier there. To you it is unimportant, to them it is not. When people shoot at our medivac helicopters because of the red cross on the white background and this to them is the crusader (This really was happening in Iraq while I was there), you "DO" have an issue when Christians are in the country. It’s one more crack that can tear wide open. It's one more propaganda issue the antagonist can use.

Syria is part of the problem, and the Turks have a relative large degree of influence over Syria. Major roads run that route and some of their primary water supplies are based in Turkey. That’s called ‘leverage’.

There are many countries that are Muslim, but Turkey is the most Western and moderate. They have a vested interest to not pissing on the EU or NATO. Their military has the ‘capacity’ to deal with such missions if they were to take on such a role. ALL other Muslim nations in that region either lack the capacity or can not be counted on as a neutral broker. Half of the Jordanian officers sympathize with the Palestinians.

I’m not saying that it ‘must’ be a Muslim nation that takes the lead on this, but I’m saying it would be an advantage. I’m not saying that EU nations and the US can’t help, but that certain people should better stay in the background and not take the lead.