BEYOND THE DROPZONE

The Lebanese Army’s new Hezbollah Corps

Posted by W. Thomas Smith Jr. on 16 September 2008 at 11:44 pm UTC

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

In a piece for Human Events in May, I wrote that the lights had gone out in Lebanon, but only temporarily. I was referring of course to the undeserved concessions granted Hezbollah as a means of reigning-in the Shiia terrorist organization, which had launched a series of bloody attacks against the Lebanese government and citizenry that same month.

The situation has devolved since then – the particulars of that devolution often slipping under the radar screen of international understanding – as the Lebanese government (an ally of the United States) continues to appease, kowtow to, and, yes, welcome into the fold perhaps the most dangerous terrorist army on earth.

Today Lebanese Pres. Michel Sleiman, the former commander-in-chief of the armed forces, kicked off his Conference on National Dialogue, which calls on conferees (primarily parliamentarians and party leaders, including Hezbollah and its allies) to adopt a new defense strategy “based on our armed forces and benefiting from the resistance capabilities.”

Resistance is the sugar-coated codeword for Hezbollah.

This statement and previous agreements since May reaffirm Hezbollah’s becoming inextricably wedded to the Lebanese Army. Make no mistake, Hezbollah – funded, operationally supported, and essentially commanded by both Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Syria – is being repackaged as a special corps of the Lebanese armed forces.

Yet we, the U.S., continue to fund and provide materiel support to the Lebanese armed forces and Interior Security Forces (national police).

Perhaps we need to rethink our support of the army, and refocus our efforts on Lebanon’s international pro-democracy movement and the pro-Western, free-Lebanon resistance organizations in Lebanon.

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.

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