No Shit

George W. Bush has been caught using an expletive, though I wouldn't regard "shit" as really being a curse word. "See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over," the president said to Tony Blair.

Focusing on the four letter word is silly. What is important is what he actually said: he says Syria should order Hezbollah to stop the rockets. Enough pressure on Assad can achieve that, but that isn't what Israel will accept. We need Hezbollah not only to stop now and stay in a position to start firing again when they want, but to leave the south, as Condoleezza Rice has said. We need Syria to tell them to go north, but that will never happen. Disarming them would be best, but that may be beyond our current abilities.

Tony Blair and Kofi Annan have suggested sending an international peacekeeping force to Southern Lebanon. For this idea to work, this force needs to have the authority to fight Hizbollah. Otherwise it will be as useless as the current UN force is Lebanon, UNIFIL.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, George Bush, Tony Blair, Kofi Annan, United Nations