U.N. Sound and Fury 

August 1, 2006
The New York Post
Original Source: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/u_n__sound_and_fury_editorial_.htm

August 1, 2006 -- The United Nations Security Council yesterday passed a resolution demanding that Iran halt its uranium-enrichment program by the end of August - or else. 
Or else what? 
Good question. 
Probably the same or else that accompanied Security Council Resolution 1559, which demanded the immediate disarming of Hezbollah. 
That never happened, of course, which is why Israel has been pounding southern Lebanon for almost three weeks - to do the job itself. 
And that's why, even after Sunday's deadly Israeli attack on a building in Qana, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday defiantly vowed to continue the offensive until we bring quiet, peace and calm to our land. 
He also warned that Israel faces pain, tears and blood . . . in the coming days. 
Most of the international community, it seems, has long since forgotten that it was Hezbollah that started this bloody conflict, without any provocation, by raining hundreds of Katyusha rockets down on northern Israel and kidnapping two soldiers for ransom. 
The aim, it now seems clear, was to move the focus of world attention away from the nuclear confrontation involving Hezbollah's ultimate sponsor, Iran. 
And that's what has happened. 
Yesterday's resolution served to remind Tehran that its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction has not entirely been forgotten, certainly not by the United States - even if Washington's insistence on immediate economic sanctions against a defiant Iran was diluted by both China and Russia. 
In the end, weakened sanctions don't mean anything, because the resolution itself doesn't mean anything - other than serving as a pointed reminder of how toothless the United Nations has become. 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in an unusual statement, took the Security Council to task for ignoring his repeated calls for an immediate cease-fire - a move that would serve only to give Hezbollah time to retrench and rearm. 
Yet Annan had no criticism of the council's unwillingness and/or inability to enforce Resolution 1559 - a move that undermined the democratically elected government of Lebanon and helped incite the current fighting. 
Just how much the situation has been turned on its head was evident by the astounding statement of French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy hailing Iran, which he said plays a stabilizing role in the region. 
Stabilizing? 
By pursuing nuclear weapons in the face of international condemnation? 
By sponsoring a terrorist group that occupies half of a sovereign nation and provokes a bloody cross-border battle? 
And by supplying Hezbollah with Katyushas? 
What an amusing man, that Philippe Douste-Blazy. 
Little wonder that Israel is leery of any U.N.-sponsored peacekeeping force - especially one dominated by French soldiers. 
And little wonder that Israel understands that it can't allow itself to be deterred when it comes to exercising its basic right of self-defense. 
President Bush gets it. 
In spelling out clear objectives toward a long-lasting peace, one that is sustainable, Bush declared yesterday: Iran must end its financial support and supply of weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Syria must end its support for terror and respect the sovereignty of Lebanon. 
Then, and only then, should Israel be asked to show restraint.