So the UN won't stop Hizbullah, they'll only interfere with Israel

[Johannes]

The UN has refused to do anything about Hezbollah, won't stop trucks carrying weapons and clearly could give a damn. But they'll happily send their troops against Israel to stand in the way of the IDF

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3309378,00.html

[Grendel]

The job of the UN force in Lebanon, is to maintain the ceasefire resolution. It lacks the man power to disperse Hezbollah, and countries aren't prepared to accept the casualities that disarming a major terrorist organization would require. The group is so ingrained in Lebanese society, that attempting to 'stop it' would be a logistical nightmare. They have significant support from the general Muslim populous because of the humanitarian activities that they conduct. Being heavily supported by Iran means that they often have more financial resources than the local government. They were able out a significant amount of reconstruction after the Israeli air strikes.

Israeli tanks advancing into Lebanon tests the bounds of the ceasefire resolution, the UN troops were clearly doing their job, and I failed to find any articles about UN troops ignoring Hezbollah weapon trucks.

[Johannes]

The UN and Lebanon are ignoring the terms of the 200 Isreali pullout which requires that Hezbollah disarm.

So here is a picture of a UN peacekeepre making friends:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060921/481/e0295bd70c984d358f823df501016bad

Here is Hezbollah telling the UN what to do:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060916/wl_afp/mideastconflictlebanonunhezbollah

Here is the article about UN troops and weapons trucks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/world/middleeast/25force.html?ex=1316836800&en=f3779feca69c1631&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Another about the UN not disarming Hezbollah:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060927/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_not_disarming_hezbollah

Hezbollah is not so ingrained in Lebanese society that they can not be disarmed. They control Southern Lebanon because of Syria and Iran, and Lebanon will never be free and indepenedent as long as Hezbollah is around.

[kinein]

I expect a renewal of conflict between Israel and Lebanon later on. It really will come down to waiting for Hezbollah to make it's next move. Or for Israel to do something. I want to know one thing, has the 2 soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah been returned to Israel? What about the 1 soldier kidnapped by the Palestinians?

- I wouldn't wait so long talking if I knew my brother was still in the hands of the enemy weeks later.. I'd be ****ed as hell.

[Johannes]

The kidnapped soldier's status and locations are unknown. They have not been returned to Israel. The Egyptians said that Gilad Shalit (the soldier kidnapped from Israel by Palestinians) is alive. Nothing more is known about Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

[kinein]

What do you think.. will we ever hear of these guys again. Will Israel stand mute and let their sons go forever? I have no clue what is the next step here.. Specially with the hamas vs fatah situation boiling... I give it a few more months til things get ugly!

[Johannes]

According to an article in Der Spiegel (Can't verify since I don't speak German, the person who told me about it is a prof of German Lit so I'm pretty sure his command of German is at least good enough to read Der Spiegel) the UNIFIL troops don't patrol at night, and at least one unit hasn't left their camp more than once. So they're just there to sit there and do nothing.

[kinein]

Yah I recently read reports from UN troops on the ground. The Italian's are ****ED, because the ones that were deployed are some hardcore mofos not your general infantry. They feel like they've been sent as a "DISPLAY" the UN is a joke. All I see Kofi and Europe doing is begging embattled regions to allow them to set up a sign saying, " The UN was here ".

[Johannes]

Which is what they are - a display at best and an anti-Israel force at worst. At least these UN troops haven't raped any children yet. But it seems that at least some of the troops went there thinking that they would be enforcing a cease-fire and stopping terrorists. In a little over a month I'll be over there again and should be speaking to at least one group of UN troops (not sure yet, looking like the French at the moment) so I'll have a better idea what, if anything, they're about.