I Remember Lebanon

When I was growing up as a child with others of my age in Ghana, Lebanon meant nothing more than a piece of land somewhere near outer space, where Ghanaian soldiers go for UN peacekeeping mission.

No one told us that it was, and even so now, a place of guns, bullets and bombs. In any case, what we thought we knew about guns and bombs and bullets left us with the erroneous impression that it was something to be excited about. We picked some of the false excitement on the faces of would-be peacekeepers and their families - they often rejoiced at the prospect of going to keep the peace in Lebanon, and any young observer thought it was a most prestigious opportunity.

The perceived prestige aside, there were palpable material and financial rewards for going to Lebanon as a Ghanaian soldier to keep the peace. The living standards of families of soldiers who go on peacekeeping missions were clearly better - they used the finest Hi-Fi systems, wear the best clothes as well as drive the best cars. Our false impressions about Lebanon as children remained. I don't know when my friends and I became wiser, but we got to know the real Lebanon. It was a place where innocent people died. And the Lebanon we see today cannot be misread.

Its a most complex country with a government that has no control over the south, because Hezbollah, a strong quasi-government in the same country holds sway there. Hezbollah is spelt in many different ways - it could be Hezbollah or Hizbollah/Hizbullah or Hezb'Allah, and it all apparently means the same thing: "the party of God." Hezbollah emerged from a Lebanese population that fiercely resisted neighbouring Israel's occupation of the country in 1982. Having no doubts about its legitimacy as resistance force against Israel, Hezbollah's influence is far more than that of a mere political party participating in Lebanon's central government. Israel has never felt comfortable with Hezbollah, especially because it speaks of seeing the hands of Syria and Iran propping it up unjustly against its interest. Besides, Hezbollah itself makes no secret of its sympathy with the Palestinians, especially now that Hamas, has formed a government there. Nearly two weeks ago, Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers over the Lebanese southern border with Israel. Ehud Olmert, who recently succeeded ailing Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister responded with an unprecedented military force. Some say Olmert who in the recent past was thought to be soft on Israel's opponents is only trying to show he is not a weakling.

Olmert caused uproar in his country three years ago, when he suggested that Israel should pull out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Cabinet colleagues from parties representing Israeli settlers accused him of giving in to terrorism. Ariel Sharon nevertheless adopted the idea and it became a policy that was subsequently implemented. And so Hezbollah, as well as observers around the globe, did not exactly expect the strong and relentless military backlash from Israel. Olmert's government does not hesitate to point out the obvious point that Hezbollah started the fight. Hezbollah too, makes no apologies for taking the two Israeli soldiers, saying past and present injustices gives them a reason to do what they did.

Israel in the meantime has raised the stakes of the escalating conflict, saying there are a number of unresolved matters which it sees necessary to address now; namely, the disarming of Hezbollah and the demilitarisation of the south of Lebanon. Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, in response says Israel already has the war it has called for. And Nasrallah means business in his own way, because his organisation's missiles have hit Israel quite hard as well, on land and water.

The world had been looking on pretty much unconcerned. America and Britain weren't sure what to do, as it they resent Hezbollah just as much as Israel. They both sing the same tune that Hezbollah asked for the bombs and the blasts. The Russians and the French in Europe only came out to speak into a microphone connected to CNN, BBC and Sky News. They both sang the same tune as well, with a chorus that Israel has a motive beyond a just demand for its soldiers.

Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, is possibly the most helpless political leader in the world today. He didn't ask for war, but he got it. He can't fight it, neither can he stop it. He is watching his country being torn into shreds. Syria and Iran are believed to own the ears of Hezbollah, but they fear to speak to them on record, for fear it may be interpreted as admission of some responsibility for the carnage in Lebanon. And Syria and Iran are not Israel's friends anyway. They dislike Israel, just as much as Hezbollah. At times like these, the United Nations shows its true colours as a toothless bulldog. The United Nations is not about Kofi Annan. The poor Ghanaian may be a five star diplomat, but he is also just a pawn in a complex geo-political conflict.

He called for an immediate ceasefire the other day - but that call, is only for the historians to write, because it can never put out the fire raging in Lebanon and a few locations inside Israel. The world's only super-power based in Washington D.C.'s White House is finally asking the most powerful woman, Dr. Condoleeza Rice, to go to what's called "the region" to call for a real ceasefire. This has come only after hundreds of innocent people have paid a high price for a senseless conflict with their very lives. And there are half a million people displaced and traumatized by it all. No one knows how many more lives will be snuffed out before, during and after America sends Rice to Lebanon and Israel. It may not be long, when soldiers from Ghana and elsewhere will again be asked to go and keep some peace. When that happens, Lebanon will again be remembered for a long time to come. And it would be remembered along with the carnage blood of both those who carry guns, and those who do not.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.