Real leadership?

What a fitting concept. Michael Ignatieff: Many faces.

Case in point: Qana

Michael Ignatieff (August 1, 2006): "Qana was frankly inevitable in a situation in which you have rocket-launchers within 100 yards of a civilian population. This is the nature of the war that's going on ...This is the kind of dirty war you're in when you have to do this and I'm not losing sleep about that."

Michael Ignatieff (August 1, 2006): "A ceasefire on the Israeli side becomes logical for Israel when it has achieved its military objectives and when it reaches the point of diminishing returns, and that is the point we've reached now."

Michael Ignatieff (August 10, 2006): "Israel has a right to reply to kidnappings and rocket attacks (by Hezbollah)."

To recap: In August, Michael Ignatieff clearly believed that Israel's response was not only inevitable, but justified.

That was then. This is now:

Michael Ignatieff (October 8, 2006): "I was a professor of human rights, and I am also a professor of the laws of war, and what happened in Qana was a war crime."

Confused? So am I. Was the attack inevitable and justified, or wasn't it? Was it a logical "military objective" or was it a "war crime"? Ignatieff, with expertise as "a professor in the laws of war," now seems to believe that war crimes were committed, right? Well, maybe not...

Michael Ignatieff (October 13, 2006): "Whether war crimes were committed in the attack on Qana is for international bodies to determine."

So now the good professor isn't so sure. He'll let the real experts decide. Good for him.

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Many faces, indeed. But real leadership? Definitely not.