Europe Wants To Stop The Fighting ...

... unless it means someone besides Arabs and Israelis might die.

"All the countries are saying what Germany is saying: We need the right rules for the deployment" and the approval of the Lebanese government, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Except the Lebanese government is not bombing Israel. It would be best to remain skeptical about European offers. They may want the fighting to stop but they aren't willing to stop Hezbollah from terrorist attacks and they would be out of their minds to try and prevent Israel from going after Hezbollah.

So Germany won't send any troops - but they will patrol the coastline. You know, to contain that dreaded Hezbollah Navy we hear so much about.

Italy, at least, is willing to sack up and put people on the line. "The Middle East is close to us, and a great nation like Italy cannot shirk its duties," Piero Fassino, who leads the largest party in Premier Romano Prodi's center-left coalition was quoted as saying. "You cannot only invoke peace and security, you have to build them."

Indeed you do. It's time for the UN to stop thinking that harshly-worded letters will keep people apart. They created the mess in the mid-east with their 'splitting the difference' solution and have balked at responsibility ever since.

"Europe has an aversion to sending troops to places where long-term stability is not ensured," said Jana Hybaskova, the European Parliament's main expert on the Middle East.

Let me see if I understand this correctly; you only want to send troops where it's already peaceful? This explains all of the French troops garrisoned in Monaco. Oops, my bad. They did offer to double their contingent of 200 troops because they have such close ties with Lebanon.