End This Tragedy Now

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Smoke billows following Israeli airstrikes on Khaim, in southern Lebanon, yesterday.
Photo Credit: By Lotfallah Daher -- Associated Press Photo

Just as the people of Iraq turned against the US, now the people of Lebanon have turned against the US for "holding Israel's coat." Here is Fouad Siniora, the Prime Minister of Lebanon in today's WAPO.

End This Tragedy Now
Israel Must Be Made to Respect International Law

By Fouad Siniora
Wednesday, August 9, 2006; A17

BEIRUT

A military solution to Israel's savage war on Lebanon and the Lebanese people is both morally unacceptable and totally unrealistic. We in Lebanon call upon the international community and citizens everywhere to support my country's sovereignty and end this folly now. We also insist that Israel be made to respect international humanitarian law, including the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, which it has repeatedly and willfully violated.

As the world watches, Israel has besieged and ravaged our country, created a humanitarian and environmental disaster, and shattered our infrastructure and economy, putting an intolerable strain on our social and economic systems. Fuel, food and medical equipment are in short supply; homes, factories and warehouses have been destroyed; roads severed, bridges smashed and airports disabled.

The damage to infrastructure alone is running into the billions of dollars, as are the losses to owners of private property, and the long-term direct and indirect costs due to lost revenue in tourism, agriculture and industrial sectors are expected to be many more billions. Lebanon's well-known achievements in 15 years of postwar development have been wiped out in a matter of days by Israel's deadly military might.

For all this carnage and death, and on behalf of all Lebanese, we demand an international inquiry into Israel's criminal actions in Lebanon and insist that Israel pay compensation for its wanton destruction.