| Same meeting between the two as cited by Fred below, but two different stories. What gives? |
| I listened to them today. They politely endorsed a multinational force when the shootin's all over, but they stuck to their guns on not calling for an immediate ceasefire. |
Tony Blair and US President George Bush say they want to see a multinational force sent to the Middle East as soon as possible.
| Assuming the shooting is over. |
Following discussions in the White House, Mr Bush said their objective was to "achieve a lasting peace out of this crisis".
| Which doesn't mean caving in to the "stop the killing" crowd... |
He said they would work for a UN resolution to provide "a framework for the cessation of hostilities on an urgent basis and mandating a multinational force".
| And we all know how quickly that goes... |
A meeting of the UN Security Council has been brought forward to Monday to discuss the force. Mr Blair said it was important not only to stop the violence but to use the opportunity to set out and achieve a "different strategic direction for the whole of that region". "We feel deeply for people in Lebanon and people in Israel who are the innocent casualties of this conflict, of course we do.
| A MNF would take weeks to organize. A NATO force would need permission from the member states, and deployment will be a problem since a fair chunk of the Euro 'rapid reaction' force is in Afghanistan. If this means the IDF can continue to whack the Hezbies until then, fine. |
"And we want it to stop now... We have set out a way to do this but it requires the long term as well as the short term."
| As far as I know, we're sticking with Resolution 1559... |
|