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Apr 27 04:32 UTC 2002 |
April 26, 2002
The U.N.'s man in Jenin
With the kind of impartiality that the United Nations is famous
for when it comes to the Middle East, its envoy there -- Terje
Roed-Larsen -- looked around the ruins of Jenin's refugee/armed
camp and concluded: "Not any objective can justify such action,
with colossal suffering ... ."
One wonders if this distinguished envoy has ever seen other such
scenes -- the films of Stalingrad after the siege, for example. Or
the remains of Dresden. Or what was left of Hiroshima after The
Bomb was dropped. Or what Berlin looked like in the final days of
Hitler's thousand-year Reich. Or just any city through which a
major battle has been fought.
Urban Warfare has such a sterilized, textbook sound. You might
see it on a lesson plan in ROTC, or hear a lecture about it at the
Army War College by somebody in a well-pressed uniform who
uses a pointer and overhead projector. Point by point, it is all so
clear, so well organized, so ... theoretical.
The reality is mothers looking for their children amid the stench
of decaying corpses, soldiers wounded for life not just physically
but in mind and soul, horrors waiting under blankets, assorted
body parts, pain impossible to bear, and sheer, bowel-shattering
fear.
Was all the death and destruction worth it? Think of how many
lives might have been spared if only the counsel of Terje
Roed-Larsen had been followed and the camps left untouched, a
sanctuary for those who would make the lives of others
unbearable.
The U.N.'s envoy is speaking in the hallowed tradition of another
great Norwegian, Vidkun Quisling. Think of all the lives he
spared by cooperating with the Nazis -- and the only thing lost
was freedom.
You who read this in freedom, and we who write it in safety
behind our capacious desks in clean, well-lighted offices, can do
so only because, in a thousand places at a thousand times, grimy,
terrified, unsure young soldiers in the fullness of life were willing
to give theirs rather than tell themselves, "Not any objective can
justify such action, with colossal suffering ... ."
Mr. Roed-Larsen's is the attitude Yasser Arafat's various militias
were counting on when they built their nests in the centers of the
Palestinian population. From there they could terrorize Israel's
cities, then disappear in the twisted alleys of Nablus or
somewhere deep in Jenin's warrens. Or maybe seek out a holy
site and cry sanctuary. It worked. Until three weeks ago. Then
there was Hell to pay. Yes, General Sherman's one-word
definition of war still applies. Just see Jenin.
After one deadly ambush there in a booby-trapped building, the
Israelis started bulldozing right through structures, leaving rough
avenues for their tanks where blocks of buildings had been. They
refused to march down the street like soldiers on parade, perfect
targets, the way the terrorists doubtless would have preferred.
War is not just Hell but a Hell of a teacher.
The Israelis could have used air power instead of infantry and
armor, and, in the style of Americans in Afghanistan, fought
much of this war long distance. They could have proceeded to
level Nablus' casbah and Jenin's refugee camp with little or no
risk to their own troops. Instead, they opted to fight house by
house, block by block, in order to minimize civilian casualties,
and they paid the price. Thirteen reservists died when one young
soldier tripped the wrong wire. (Anything that could be
booby-trapped in Jenin was, including the dead.)
Israel's reward is now to be lectured by a handsome, well-dressed
official of the United Nations. (On television, even his bright blue
flak jacket looks tailored.) Of course he would be with the U.N.,
which over the years has allowed its camps to become centers of
terror, complete with arsenals and bomb factories.
This is the same U.N. that declined offers of blood plasma from
Israeli donors for people caught in Jenin, causing a critical delay
in humanitarian aid. The U.N. preferred to wait for help from
Jordan rather than accept "Jewish blood." The more things
change, the more types like Terje Roed-hyphen-Larsen remain
the same.
Oh, yes, Mr. Roed-Larsen also objected to Israel's refusal to allow
the U.N. to enter the battle zone sooner. This time he may have a
point: The Israelis missed a bet. They should have invited Mr.
Terje Roed-Larsen himself to cut a few of those trip wires they
found all over Jenin, or maybe defuse some of the bodies that had
been rigged to explode. Now that would have been a sight to see.
From a distance.
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