After Lebanon

I was watching Wolf Blizter's afternoon show today and I caught this piece on Israeli soldiers still on the ground in Southern Lebanon searching underground bunkers for missiles and arms. The soldiers are searching for underground tunnels so that they can destroy any remaining rockets. Hey I'm all for the destruction of rockets and missiles, the fewer we have of them the better. But a couple of things in the piece struck me as odd.

If there is a cease-fire, why are armed Israeli soldiers still on the ground in Lebanon? Maybe a cease-fire means just that, ceasing to fire any rockets or guns. But if Israel is allowed to remain on the ground for a certain period of time to disarm the opposition, why is no one disarming Israel? I don't know jack about the terms of the cease-fire, (If Bruce was not on vacation, I could ask him) but it would seem like Lebanon made a bad deal allowing the Israelis to leave soldiers on the ground.

The other thing that is disturbing to me is that while the Israeli soldiers are still there, why is no one insisting that they clean up the thousands of unexploded cluster bombs that were left for children to stumble upon?

Unexploded cluster bombs - anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area - litter homes, gardens and highways in south Lebanon after Israel's 34-day war with Hezbollah militants.

Oh and just as an FYI, the Democrats today proposed a ban on cluster bombs in civilian areas by the Pentagon, and also proposed to ban the sales of these inhumane weapons to any country that would not abide by the same rules. Guess who rejected the measure? If you said Republicans, you win a plate of Triple Chocolate Brownies with Cream Cheese Frosting!

After Lebanon, we're not sure if peace will hold. But one thing we can be sure of, cluster bombs will remain a big ticket item for the American Arms Dealers as long as the Republicans remain in charge.

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