Here's how the Lebanon `ceasefire' is being implented

Your pal Freedom Fighter can only utter a grim laugh as he watched how the Lebanese `ceasefire' is being implemented...

President Bush and Israeli Prime minister Olmert both went on record as saying that the new UN resolution 1701 would end Hezbollah’s `state within a state' in Lebanon and would pave the way for the so-called democratic government of Lebanon to take control of its own territory.

Actually, they were correct, but not in the way they meant. Instead of being a `state within a state' Hezbollah is in the process of swallowing up Lebanon.

Now here's how that operates in the real world.

Hezbollah's Sheik Nasrallah has completely refused to disarm his Hezbollah fighters inthe south, as per the resolution. He told Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora point blank that the only thing he's willing to do in South Lebanon is to avoid exhibiting his fighters’ weapons in public and keep things discreet.

The Hezbollah army in the South isn't going to try to stop the deployment of Lebanese troops and a strengthened UNFIL force, so long as they understand who's in charge, namely Hezbollah. In other words, any Lebanese troops or foreign peacekeepers will be watched by Hezbollah and under Hezbollah's control and observation. This nullifies the injunction to the Beirut government to assert Lebanese sovereignty in every part of the country, as per the UN resolution.

Siniora has no choice but to accept these orders and end any attempts to disarm Hezbollah. If he doesn't, Hezbollah ministers and memebers of Lebanon's parliament can topple his government at will by withdrawing their parliamentary support...and Siniora will end up in leeetle teensy pieces like his predecessors Hariri and Gamayl. And you can bet he knows it.

Hezbollah is already on the move and heading back to its old positions south of the Litani river.

Yesterday, August 14, in a televised speech on al-Manor (AKA Hezbo-TV) Nasrallah made a large pitch for funds, and also said that his men would be on hand to help with `repairs'. Aside from getting Hezbollah a cut of all that juicy UN donor aid (the US pledge is $50M), this is a way of opening the door for Hezbollah fighters to reach their former bases and fortifications disguised as volunteers and aid workers donating their services to the national reconstruction effort.

I also have a report that Nasrallah also ordered a substantial force of rearmed Hezbollah fighters from the Hezbollah strongholds in the Beqaa Valley and Baalbek to pack their bags and head south with their families as `refugees'. I'm sure they're also bringing new missiles to replace what was fired off or lost during the war.

The large numbers of returning Hezbollah fighters with their families are jamming the roads south – and blocking the deployment of the 15,000-strong Lebanese force ordered by UN resolution 1701 to take over south Lebanon. By the time those Lebanese troops and the UNFIL units get there, if they get there, Hezbollah will be armed, in place and in complete control of their former territory.

What's more, under extreme pressure by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Israeli army has already begun its pullback, rather than waiting for the UNFIL and the Lebanese army.

Annan actually had the temerity to send a letter to Olmert instructing him that once the cease-fire is put into effect, the IDF will be barred from taking action even if it comes under attack. As far as Annan is concerned, resolution 1701 says that if Israel is attacked, all it is allowed to do is report it!

So ends round 1 of this war. Round 2 may not be very far off at all.