Into the Meat Grinder: A NATO Force Would Benefit Israel, Not Lebanon

By Robert Fisk
Counterpunch
August 1, 2006

Every foreign army–including the Israelis–comes to grief in Lebanon.

So, how come George Bush and Blair, after their inevitable disasters in Afghanistan and Iraq, believe that a Nato-led force is going to survive on the south Lebanese border? The Israelis would obviously enjoy watching its deployment–it will be time for the West to take the casualties–but Hizbollah is likely to view its arrival as a proxy Israeli army. It is, after all, supposed to be a “buffer” force to protect Israel–not, as the Lebanese have quickly noted, to protect Lebanon–and the last NATO army that came to this country was literally blasted out of its mission by suicide bombers.

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