Pape's point that I've quoted below suggests to me that any international peacekeeping force, regardless of its ethnic composition, will run a grave risk of being targeted in terrorist attacks, especially one as large as 500,000. Hezbollah terrorism is about ending military occupation.
It looks like a peacekeeping force will be part of a settlement being negotiated at the UN as we speak. The sticking point is whether or not Hezbollah should have a place at the negotiating table. Many believe that we should never negotiate with terrorists. How do we define who is and is not a terrorist. If we broadly define a terrorist then that leaves out all stakeholders in the conflict except non-Hezbollah civilian representatives of the Lebanese government.
My point here is that Hezbollah needs to be invited to the table in order to reach a settlement that will stick.
QUOTE(tazvil04 @ Aug 4 2006, 08:12 AM)
August 3, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Ground to a Halt
By ROBERT PAPE
Chicago
NEW YORK TIMES
In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.
What these suicide attackers — and their heirs today — shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force.
Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, is the author of “Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.”
Op-Ed Contributor
Ground to a Halt
By ROBERT PAPE
Chicago
NEW YORK TIMES
In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.
What these suicide attackers — and their heirs today — shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force.
Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, is the author of “Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.”