Sitting Ducks

News from the Middle East-

JERUSALEM -- U.N. observers in Lebanon telephoned the Israeli military 10 times in six hours to ask it to stop shelling near their position before an attack killed four observers and sparked international anger with Israel, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

The U.N. observation post near Khiam came under close Israeli fire 21 times Tuesday -- including 12 hits within 100 yards and five direct hits from 1:20 p.m. until the peacekeepers' post was destroyed at 7:30 p.m., Jane Lute, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, told the U.N. Security Council in New York.

U.N. officials said Hezbollah militants had been operating in the area of the post near the eastern end of the border with Israel, a routine tactic to prevent Israel from attacking them.

Officials in the outpost called the Israeli army 10 times during those six hours, and each time an army official promised to have the bombing stopped, according to a preliminary U.N. report on the incident, which was shown to an Associated Press reporter on Wednesday.

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The bombing put Israel on the defensive two weeks into its campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed ``deep regret'' for the deaths and dismay over U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's accusation that the attack was "apparently deliberate.''

Olmert told Annan in a phone call Wednesday that the attack was inadvertent and he promised a ``thorough investigation,'' his office said in a statement.

"It's inconceivable for the U.N. to define an error as an apparently deliberate action,'' Olmert said.

This story got a great deal of publicity yesterday. Mostly because of Kofi Annan's remarks.

Why would Israel bomb a UN outpost? How would Annan know the attack was deliberate? The MSM likes to editorialize on a regular basis, why aren't they asking these questions. The only one who has the answers about happened for certain are Israel and its military. There will always be some who will not accept the word of a party involved in an incident like this no matter what. Skeptics alwyas get the most press.

The bigger issue is, the UN's presence in Lebanon. Countries are calling for it to be increased in rder to stop the present conflict. But as some remind us, the UN has been there since 1978. The UN has had almost 30 years in the region and Hizbollah is still there. What does that tell us about the potential effectiveness of UN peacekeepers.

Yesterday's incident as James Joyner points out, is going to make UN members less likely to offer troops to police the area. For they will be what the title of my post says. Caught between two parties firing at one another. Who wants to be in that situation?

Open Post- Random Yak, Right Wing Nation,