The Iranian Foreign Legion and phase I

At this point the ceasefire package outlined by Rich Lowry at NRO and available elsewhere is problematic as it addresses the non-Nation of Hezbollah (I like my spelling more and am used to it... go figure). The very first problem is that there is no way to hold Hezbollah ACCOUNTABLE nor, indeed, get them to properly sign-on to such an accord. This legitimacy of address further bolsters the Iranian attempt to legitimize their Foreign Legion in Lebanon called Hezbollah. By the act of attempting to address a non-State actor via the UN, the legitimacy of that actor is now *recognized*. Thus the rise of the curtain in ACT II starts with Iran gaining from aggression via proxy.

Secondly, with the Lebanese government continuing to support Hezbollah as a 'political party', their legitimacy on that front, as a non-ruling party with minority representation, is now given the visibility EQUAL to that of the Nation within which it resides. By continuing to assert the legitimacy of rebellion and not countering it properly, Hezbollah has been given clear go-ahead, in the past, to act autonomously to the Nation of Lebanon. Instead of denying further legitimacy to Hezbollah, this ceasefire, if *agreed* to by Hezbollah then gives them full standing as a *legitimate* player in the Middle East as Iran's proxy army.

By not supporting the full withdrawal of internal and external recognition of Hezbollah as a legitimate actor upon the stage of Middle Eastern politics, the UN and all signatories to this cease fire have decided to bestow upon a terrorist organization with political front and full backing by a separate and non-signatory State the imprimatur of legitimacy. Hezbollah may freely put their Nation of residence at peril, undermine its political system freely, ignore UN mandates and, generally, continue on with what it was doing and make a mockery of the entire charade. This ceasefire, instead of affirming the legitimacy of Nations to be the SOLE representatives of their people has, instead, offered full rewards for any non-State group that makes its presence painful to gain such recognition with no undo consequences to it, save loss of life which they use to their benefit and that of their paymasters in Iran.

I do mourn the loss of life of the innocents on all sides and those that are the legitimate and legal defenders of their Nation. Others I care *not* about as they are illegitimate under the Nation State system and are undermining that entire system with this agreement. Make no mistake about it, such a ceasefire and recognition is a loss by the entire civilized world bowing to terrorism and legitimizing it as a valid tool AGAINST themselves.

Many will point to all the wonderful words about 'disarming' this Foreign Legion and ensuring that Lebanon as a Nation has sole purview over itself without outside interference. And its lackluster Army has proven itself incapable of doing this and the UN sponsored military may defend 'itself' but take NO ACTION against attacks going around/through/over its mandate area. The correct view of this is that the UN is now putting up hostages to be held at the mercy of Hezbollah that will be used as shields if Hezbollah *agrees* to the ceasefire. And once these troops are in-place, Hezbollah can then stage ANOTHER incident and increase the loss of life internationally and start up its propaganda filming of THOSE deaths and show how 'bad Israel is' for killing these 'peacekeepers'.

UNIFIL was unable to stop Hezbollah from re-arming and this mandate is little different from THAT one. Without the right to enforce a non-militarized zone and police it, and by the inability of Lebanon to do the same, there are zero guarantees against Hezbollah re-arming, reinforcing itself, putting in larger stores and generally learning on how to stop an Israeli assault the NEXT time they start up hostilities. And this time they will ensure many, many, many more deaths of 'innocents' to be publicized widely with much red splashed on blue helmets to prove the point.

I am doubtful as to what the UN can actually do as seen by its track record: Srebrenica, Rwanda, $1 UN girls in the Congo, Failure to condemn Sudanese slavery, UN Bosnian sex trade and trafficking in human beings, UN sex trade in Bosnia and Kosovo, UN forced prostitution in Bosnia, UN forced prostitution of teenagers in Bosnia, Blue helmet babies abandoned in Liberia, DNA testing called for UN sexual abuse scandals reaching U.N. operations in Congo, Liberia, Burundi, Haiti and other parts of the world, Hezbollah bribery of UN forces in Israeli kidnapping (you know, the one that STARTED this recent war), UNIFIL unable to keep the peace, Hezbollah co-locating at UNIFIL sites for launching rockets, UN calls for 'restoring calm' in Timor-Leste where it has peacekeepers (shouldn't they be, you know, KEEPING THE PEACE?) and let us not forget the UN Oil For Food scandals.

"What happens in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving." -- Jeanne Kirkpatrick

Sounds familiar: same tune, different day and venue.

Needless to say the rumors of the collapse of the Ehud Olmert government in Israel are rife after his mishandling of this entire affair. Unable to make a decision to protect his Nation and now signing onto an agreement that gives Hezbollah more legitimacy behind which it can hide and use that as ammunition to 'justify' its attacks against Israel. This is Transnational Progressivism at its worse:

The key concepts of transnational progressivism are:

Groups are what matter, not people. You are "Black" or "Christian" or "Mexican" or "Afghan" or "Sunni", you are not yourself. You also don't get to choose your group; it's inherent in what you were when you were born. Someone else will categorize you into your group, and you will become a number, a body to count to decide how important that group is. And your group won't change during your lifetime.

The goal of fairness is equality of result, not equality of opportunity. It isn't important to let individuals fulfill their potential and express their dreams, what's important is to make groups have power and representation in all things proportional to their numbers in the population. Fairness is for groups, not for individuals. The ideally fair system is based on quotas, not on merit, because that permits proper precise allocation of results.

Being a victim is politically significant. It's not merely a plea for help or something to be pitied; it's actually a status that grants extra political power. "Victimhood" isn't a cult, it's a valid political evaluation. Groups which are victims should be granted disproportionately more influence and representation, at the expense of the historic "dominant" culture.

Assimilation is evil. Immigrants must remain what they were before they arrived here, and should be treated that way. Our system must adapt to them, rather than expecting them to adapt to us (even if they want to). The migration of people across national borders is a way to ultimately erase the significance of those borders by diluting national identity in the destination country.

An ideal democracy is a coalition where political power is allocated among groups in proportion to their numbers. It has nothing to do with voting or with individual citizens expressing opinions, and in fact it doesn't require elections at all. A "winner take all" system, or one ruled by a majority, is profoundly repugnant because it disenfranchise minority groups of all kinds and deprives them of their proper share of power.

National identity is evil. We should try to think of ourselves as citizens of the world, not as citizens of the nations in which we live, and we should try to minimize the effects of national interests, especially our own if we live in powerful nations.

Now, lets use this as a checklist, shall we?

Groups are what matter: Well Hezbollah has gotten the big checkmark on that one via this ceasefire! They matter as MUCH as a legitimate Nation State now. Thank you to all the folks at the UN and the diplomatic community on a global scale for helping that along and making your jobs much harder... probably a job security thing... right up to the moment your Nation falls because of your hard work. Better luck next life.

Fairness in equality of result: Hezbollah gets left as a legitimate force in the field and recognition and so gain in this checkmark also! Yes, instead of outlawing their 'political' party, recognizing them as terrorists and calling on the international community to REPUDIATE them, Hezbollah now gets fairness in result and treatment as a legitimate player at the UN. My thanks just continue to rush at the same sources.

Being a victim is politically significant: And if you can engineer the media to show your victimhood and ignore the fact that you are VICTIMIZING innocents, all the better! Oh a big double-ultra plus checkmark on this one for certain. Thank you to the MSM and editorially blind outlets and European 'moral equivalency' on this!

Assimilation is evil: A minority party now 'wags the dog' of a Nation State. Why assimilate if you can do THAT *and* get applause for doing so and recognition? Huge checkmark on non-assimilation and the supremacy of groups over Nations here. Thanks to all of the folks at the UN, EU and diplomatic community of all stripes, my Nation *not* excluded.

Ideal democracy is proportionate to numbers in groups, not individuals: Hezbollah looks to rule southern Lebanon. By remaining a legitimate party, they assert control over that area in absence of the Lebanese Army or UNIFIL doing anything to disarm them. The Lebanese Army *still* gets this task and UNIFIL *still* gets to be onlookers. If you hadn't noticed Hezbollah has proven resistant to BOTH and has undermined BOTH. They assert supremacy over their territory without regard to the actual Nation they are in. One People, One Party, One Hezbollah. So long as they remain a political faction able to exert control in that area, they have this box checked off also.

National identity is evil: Notice that Hezbollah no longer claims to be purely Lebanese. They are now fully armed and supported by Iran with help from Syria. Hezbollah IS no Nation and asserts no National Sovereignty, but the control of the strong over the weak. Hezbollah does not NEED to integrate and be Lebanese anymore. And this is *endorsed* by the ceasefire agreement. Check this one off also.

All in all this ceasefire is a strike against Western concepts of National Sovereignty and a huge victory for Transnationalists of the Progressive and Terrorist varieties. They BOTH win with this erosion of the system of Nation States in this agreement. This is NOT the road to Peace in the Middle East.

It is the road to legitimizing Empire in the name of Caliphate.

And also the road to ending the rights of the Individual as Empires care *not* about those.