How Long Will The Fighting Last?

Monday, August 7, 2006

By Bill Hemmer, FOXNews

August 7, 2006

Transcript

Bill Hemmer: In the meantime, nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Israel says this is videotape of the launchers used to fire a deadly barrage of rockets at the city of Haifa. Israel found those launchers, made quick work of them: the fighting fierce now, but obviously will not go on forever. The question is how much longer? The border between Israel and Lebanon someday will be quiet again, we know that, but what will peace or at least a ceasefire look like? How long will that last? Tim Roemer is a former democratic congressman from Indiana, former 9/11 Commissioner. Welcome back here Tim, nice to have you.

Tim Roemer: Good afternoon Bill, thank you.

Hemmer: I don’t get a sense that the world community is in much of a hurry here. Or is this just us learning about how slow diplomacy can be?

Roemer: Well, first of all, as you well know, you’ve been here several times. This is one of the most difficult and volatile places in the world with memories that go back thousands of years. We also have diplomacy that over the last several years has not worked very well. The Bush administration doesn’t have a particularly good track record here. I agree with what the president just said: Bill, we cannot allow a vacuum to take place in this part of the world. The pictures we have now are Hezbollah apparently getting stronger. We can either have American leadership fill that void, or it can be Hezbollah, or it could be the U.N. I pick America.

Hemmer: And he’s clear in his point too; Syria is the issue here. He also says Hezbollah started all of this and they have not wavered from that position, the White House that is.

Roemer: I agree with the President on that point too, Bill. We had the Arab world agreeing with us too and this is very important in the Middle East for us, not only in Lebanon but in Iraq, and in Afghanistan. When Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are initially condemning Hezbollah for coming across that border and capturing Israeli soldiers, we had world opinion on our side, just like we did after 9/11. I think we need to make sure that we keep opinion going in our side and that is why when we work through the U.N. resolution with the United States’ strong leadership, powerful diplomatic leadership we begin to outline what this should look like. And if the Americans and others would have been supportive of the initial U.N. 1559 resolution where we have a strong Lebanese government that can make sure that the military power of Hezbollah is degraded, I think that might have helped us from getting into this situation in the first place.

Hemmer: How much of all of this is wishful thinking in the end? I mean the Lebanese government had so many years ago, it had to get its act together; it took no action against Hezbollah. Who says this are going to change now?

Roemer: Bill it’s a tough issue. There is no doubt that this would have taken U.S. leadership from the very get go. I think we got off to a very slow start. I do not think that the Bush administration has paid a lot of attention to this particular problem. We have Iraq going on; we have Afghanistan backsliding on us. That’s why the United States does need to try to solve this problem, so this whole region does not become the tinderbox and the hive for terrorist activity that Iraq is becoming.

Hemmer: These are complicated issues, Thank you Tim: Tim Roemer from Washington.

Roemer: Alright Bill, nice to be with you.

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