End Lebanon’s suffering

We hope the world would respond readily to the plaintive appeal by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora for abundant international humanitarian assistance for his country which is reeling under a devastating, Israeli blitzkrieg. He coupled it with a call for global pressure for a cessation of the inhuman assaults on his country, which have killed Lebanese in their hundreds, displaced thousands of others and triggered large-scale chaos.

The seeming inaction of the international community in the face of this destruction could lend to the Israeli action a degree of impunity. Unless and until the world unites to end the suffering of Lebanon and speaks in one, cogent voice against the horrors visited on that hapless country, the chances are that Lebanon’s torment would continue.

Therefore, inaction and silence are non-options in this unfolding tragedy. The world, through the multilateral global institutions at its service, such as the UN, and through every other legitimate, collective means, needs to bring relief to bleeding Lebanon.

It is best that the world remembers that evil thrives when the good remain silent. If the international community continues to greet the merciless onslaughts on Lebanon with a deafening silence, this would be tantamount to encouraging the furies which have been unleashed on that state, whose suffering in the past too has been monumental. Therefore, legitimate, global collective action to end Lebanon’s suffering is urgently needed and cannot be postponed. Let us act now, to end Lebanon’s travails.

Humanitarian assistance is, no doubt, a crying need in Lebanon and the world needs to muster all its resources to meet the needs of the afflicted. However, constructive collective action by the international community cannot end there. Israel’s destructive acts must be halted too, and here is where moral and other forms of legitimate compulsion by the world would prove effective. The world must unite, ideally under the rubric of the UN, to put an end to the aggression unleashed on Lebanon.

It is important to remember that it is not “excessive force” by Israel which is at issue. It is the very use of force by states to end disputes among them, which needs to be questioned. Force, whether it be “excessive” or “proportionate” should be unacceptable to the world community. In fact the use of force in any form in international disputes, should be discouraged. The crisis in Lebanon should remind the world that it has failed to a degree in the task of reining-in states which have a penchant for violence.

It is not our aim to level strictures at global organisations, such as the UN, which have continued to serve the world to the best of their ability. Our intention is to point to the need to strengthen the multilateral nature of these organisations. In other words, their collective decision-making capacity for the good of mankind must be greatly enhanced.

This would prevent the launching of unilateral, destructive acts by states, which have grave implications for world peace.

The Living Will

A last will becomes effective only when a person dies. A Living Will is effective while you are alive and it comes into effect when you are seriously ill or cannot communicate for any reason. It is thus an advance directive to doctors and relatives of what you want done if you cannot express your wishes or requirements.

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