I was listening to NPR’s Morning Edition on my way into work today. No shock there. I do that everyday.

But….

They interviewed Kori Schake, “a fellow at the Hoover Institute and former director of defense strategy at the National Security Council during the first Bush administration”, about the current ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

I figured it would be yet another chance for NPR to denounce Israel, but I was pleasantly surprised. Steve Inskeep asked very good questions and the answers were dead on. I can’t help to wonder if Inskeep was a bit taken back by the whole thing:

Inskeep: Now 15,000 outsiders, plus 15,000 Lebanese, that is a lot of soldiers. Why would you have doubts about whether they can do what they’re supposed to do?

Schake: Two reasons. First, if the Lebanese had the capacity to do this, they would have been doing it before now. Having outsourced the security of Southern Lebanon to Hezbollah, um it’s not clear to me that the Lebanese forces either have the capacity or the domestic support to be able to carry this out. My second reason is that there doesn’t appear to be a consensus among even the leadership of the UN Mission as to what it is they’re going to do. If the means are purely political, you don’t need 30,000 troops to carry it out….

Oh my! Truth. I would have loved to see Inskeep’s face.

It must have had an affect on him because he then asked the ten million dollar question:

Inskeep: Can I just ask if there’s so many obstacles to this force succeeding in the form that it appears to be taking, why did U.S. and other diplomats, who surely know the same concerns you are describing, why did they agree to this?

Schake: It seems to me that they likely agreed for a variety of reasons. Israel has achieved its near term objectives of destroying Hezbollah arms and infrastructure and they sure don’t want to occupy Southern Lebanon again to prevent the recurrence. Hezbollah gets an end to the Israeli attack and likely time to rearm behind the protection of an International force. The government of Lebanon gets an end to the damage to the country and assistance in controlling Hezbollah. I think it buys everybody time.

Inskeep: Meaning that nobody here really thinks that they are nearing an end to this conflict, they’re just going to seek a pause, which is imperfect and that’s fine with them because they’ll use it for their own purposes.

Schake: I think that’s right.

Wow. Its the truth too. All this ceasefire will do will allow Hezbollah to get stronger and eventually, Israel will be attacking again. Why not go all out and destroy your enemy? File It Under has a great post quoting from Patton concerning this. Go check it out.

Anyway. This interview reminded me of a great Simpsons episode, Homer the Vigilante [1F09]. Homer sets up a vigilante group to help deal with a rash of burglaries. As with most vigilante groups, they become obsessed with power and begin abusing the very people they were supposed to protect. Homer is interviewed about his groups activities:

Kent: Mr. Simpson, how do you respond to the charges that petty vandalism such as graffiti is down eighty percent, while heavy sack-beatings are up a shocking nine hundred percent?

Homer: Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that.

Kent: I see. Well, what do you say to the accusation that your group has been causing more crimes than it’s been preventing?

Homer: [amused] Oh, Kent, I’d be lying if I said my men weren’t committing crimes.

Kent: [pause] Well, touche’.

I wonder how Inskeep is doing after his morning brush with truth?