Top EU official says Lebanon fighting "terrorists", not Palestinians

International Herald Tribune ^ | May 22, 2007 | Unknown

[3AngelaD]

BEIRUT, Lebanon: A top European official on Tuesday defended Lebanon's military campaign against Islamic militants in a refugee camp, saying the government was fighting a "terrorist group," yet calling on the Lebanese army to respect the safety of civilians.

"We hope that the actions of the army be in conformity with the values and high standards of protecting civilians," European Union Foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters after meeting with government leaders in Lebanon.

[3AngelaD]

It must be worse than we thought if even the Euroweenies get its. But of course Solana has to add: "We hope that the actions of the army be in conformity with the values and high standards of protecting civilians..." What about the actions of the terrorists, or do they get a free pass, Solano?

[ClearCase_guy]

A distinction without a difference.

[SolidWood]

Note to Solana: palestinian = terrorist

[gridlock]

You say tomato, and I say tomahto.
You say potato, and I say potahto.
Tomato, tomahto, potato, potahto,
Let’s blow the whole thing up!

[KingSnorky]

Spoken like a true EUnuch.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

"We hope that the actions of the army be in conformity with the values and high standards of protecting civilians,"

C'mon guys, fight fair like we did during the Spanish Civil War, the way the Germans and Russians did, like the Japanese in Manchuria, not like those borish Americans.

[ScaniaBoy]

C'mon guys, fight fair like we did during the Spanish Civil War, the way the Germans and Russians did, like the Japanese in Manchuria, not like those borish Americans.

Exactly, no Americans, no Israelis involved, then anything goes.

[p. henry]

Terrorists are fish that swim in the sea of the people. It is notoriously hard to fish a species to extinction with single line fishing. “Civilians” tolerate terrorists among them either because they support them or because they fear them. If they support them, they are not civilians. Therefore, the job of the nation opposing the terrorists must be to cause the civilians to fear the presence of terrorists more than they fear the terrorists. Only then will the terrorists be defeated. The public in the United States will not tolerate that process. Therefore, the United States is ill-suited to fighting a war against terrorists directly.

[ScaniaBoy]

Yes, I agree - at least partly, but my comment was not meant to disparage the ability of the US or Israel to fight terrorists, but against the hypocrisy shown by the UN, the EU, and all and every NGO.

Since the conflict in northern Lebanon does not involve either Israel or the US bombing of a civilian population centre is met with a collective shrug of the shoulders at most.

We all know what the front pages of NYT, WaPo, LAT etc, etc would have looked like if the US had fired artillery shells into a refugee camp - even if Bin Laden himself had set up a ballistic missile base inside the camp......