WP,pg1: In Beirut, Rice Outlines Proposal to Deploy Force In Lebanon

[DeepModem Mom]

Rice Outlines Proposal to Deploy Force In Lebanon
Plan for Buffer Zone on Border Greeted Skeptically in Beirut
By Robin Wright and Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 25, 2006; Page A01

BEIRUT, July 24 -- On an unannounced trip to ravaged Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice outlined a plan Monday to deploy an international force, possibly led by NATO, in a buffer zone just inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days, after which it would expand its mission to help the Lebanese army regain control of the south, Lebanese and U.S. officials said.

The force would also help train the army, which according to U.S. officials now has neither the will nor the means to disarm Hezbollah, Lebanon's last private militia.

But Rice's plan to end the conflict, prop up the Lebanese government and weaken Hezbollah was greeted with skepticism by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Lebanon's top Sunni official, and other leaders. Siniora and the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, a Shiite with close ties to Hezbollah, warned that Hezbollah was unlikely to accept any foreign military presence in its traditional stronghold in heavily Shiite southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has already rejected calls to disarm....

***

On the first leg of her diplomatic effort, Rice focused heavily on humanitarian issues....But Siniora pressed Rice for an immediate cease-fire....The sequence of next steps is also becoming an issue, U.S. officials said. Arab demands have focused on first achieving an immediate cease-fire, before considering other measures such as arrangements to disarm Hezbollah and release two Israeli soldiers taken captive by Hezbollah on July 12 in an incident that sparked the crisis. The Bush administration has backed Israel's campaign to cripple the Shiite militia, which has fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel, and the United States and Israel are demanding the immediate release of the Israeli soldiers.

Rice told Berri that she was "deeply concerned" about the Lebanese and "what they are enduring." President Bush had personally asked her to make Lebanon the first stop of her Middle East mission, she said. But she also told Berri, whose mainstream Shiite Amal party has worked politically with Hezbollah, that "the situation on the border cannot return to what it was before July 12."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072400050.html

[charlie and algernon]

1. well it's nice to know we're taking a page out of the west wing

and it didn't really end good for them either

[wordpix2]

2. so much for peace talks if Hezbollah won't disarm

Isn't that needed for peace?

[tanyev]

3. A Coalition of the Imaginary.

Condi's been spending too much time working down in the basement, in Karl's myth lab.

[mainegreen]

4. With what troops?

There's a software term for this kind of rubbish: vaporware. All talk, no product.

[rodeodance]

5. "train the army,"--Hope they have better teachers than they did in Irag.

[Gully Foyle]

6. Uh

I posted quotes from
http://www.juancole.com/
http://www.counterpunch.org/

claiming Israel is LOSING.
If Condi is acting as Olmerts mouthpiece then in fact Israel needs this more than they care to claim publicly.
Which supports both articles.