Stung by international criticism regarding their paltry offer to add a mere 400 troops to their force serving in the United Nations International Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Jacques Chirac promised to add an additional 1600 men to the French commitment:

In a nationally televised address, Chirac said France will increase its deployment from an already announced 400 troops, and hopes to retain command of the force. He said the United Nations had provided the guarantees France had sought involving the mandate of the force.

“Two extra battalions will go on to the ground to extend our numbers within” the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Chirac said. “Two thousand French soldiers are thus placed under blue helmets in Lebanon,” he added, referring to the colored headgear that members of UN peacekeeping forces wear.

“These 2,000 soldiers include the 400 military personnel already present on the ground,” he added after meeting with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, as well as his foreign and defense ministers and military chiefs.

Italy has agreed to take on the thankless task of commanding the force which will have a mandate to “defend themselves” and civilians” in the likely event they get shot at:

Potential contributors to the force have expressed concern about the lack of a clear and strong mandate, which could hinder troops on the ground and leave them unable to defend themselves if they come under fire, like the existing UNIFIL force in Lebanon.

But the United Nations has now authorized the force to use weapons in self-defense and to defend civilians.

Evidently Bush has been busier than many people realized in pushing the recalcitrant Europeans to fill out the bulk of forces that will be sent to implement Resolution 1701:

In Rome, Prime Minister Romano Prodi said President George. W. Bush had told him by telephone of his “positive” view of Italy’s offer to lead the force. He added Bush was also leaning on allies to offer troops.

“I expect that reluctant or not, smiling or not, there will be an ample European contribution,” Prodi said in an interview with RAI state radio. “Bush is making a strong effort to put pressure on friendly countries in order to broaden the number of participants in the mission.”

The European commitment will become clearer after a meeting tomorrow in Brussels. It appears that the bulk of the 15,000 man force will therefore be made up of real soldiers and not drawn from the armies of nations that believe Israel has no right to exist:

Greece, Finland, Poland and Spain have all indicated that they will contribute, prompting European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso to say Thursday he was “confident that Europe will provide the necessary support to expand UNIFIL.”

In addition, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia have said they will participate, though Israel is resisting the offer from the latter two because of an absence of diplomatic relations.

And someone should tell the Italians that they should get with the program and not try and disarm Hizbullah. Their Foreign Minister didn’t get the memo:

D’Alema said that the international force would “assist” the Lebanese Army in disarming Hizbullah and restoring the government’s sovereignty over the southern region.

He said some form of assistance could also be extended to help Lebanon control its border with Syria and stem the flow of arms destined for Hizbullah, but ruled out deploying the international force along the Lebanon-Syria border. “That would require an enormous number of troops and is not called for in the resolution,” D’Alema told a joint news conference.

Livni said Hizbullah could play a role in Lebanese politics but insisted on the enforcement of 1701 in order for “Hizbullah not to be an armed militia at the end of the process but to take part in Lebanese political life.”

D’Alema said that the disarmament of Hizbullah was “in large part” up to the Lebanese government

Will there come a point where someone, somewhere, insists that UN Resolutions 1559 and 1701 be fully implemented? Both resolutions call for Hizbullah’s disarmament in the clearest language possible. How many times will the UN “insist” the terrorists disarm before someone does it?

And what about the stipulation regarding the interdiction of Syrian and Iranian arms to Hizbullah? Are we just going to let that one drop? Are they hoping that Israel is going to forget that they agreed to a cease fire with that very important stipulation as part of the deal? Will they prevent Israel from doing their job for them?

Many questions and few answers as the new force is deployed. If past history is anything to go by, the force will not be effective at doing anything save hunkering down when the going gets tough. The UN has yet to deploy a force that has been able to stop determined adversaries from killing each other. And given the mandate applied to this one, I don’t expect anything different.