Too Little, Too Late?

Do not ask me why the headline of every story on the USS Cole's deployment off Lebanon's coast focuses on Hezbollah's anger over its presence. It is the least interesting angle of the day's events.

What about, for example, the majority's response? Siniora's did not exactly welcome the return of the Americans with open arms, taking to television to assure the Lebanese that "[w]e did not ask anyone to send warships." Very well, I suppose. Nobody wants to play the role of the younger sibling who calls over the big brother when he is picked on. The reaction was different, I suspect, in private. And almost all of the reactions were in private; MPs who are normally quick to give a quote were suspiciously silent yesterday.

What about the fact that nobody seems to be taking this move particularly seriously? There is very little sense at the moment that the presence of the USS Cole represents an American intention to use force in the near to mid-term. It is just another message, another negotiating tactic in Lebanon's political deadlock. Last summer, when government leaders were looking, apparently in vain, for signs of international support for a President elected with an absolute majority, this may have been enough. At this stage of the game, without the addition of significantly more ships, I don't believe it will be met with anything more than a shrug.