Because it’s worked so well in the West Bank we should try it in Hezbollah’s heartland:
A senior Pentagon official said Thursday the U.S. military would like to see a strategic partnership with Lebanon’s army to strengthen the country’s forces so that Hezbollah would have no excuse to bear arms. The comments by Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, in an interview aired on Lebanese television two days after his visit, followed a published report in Beirut that Washington is proposing a treaty with Lebanon to make it a strategic partner to counter increased Russian influence in neighboring Syria… Edelman’s remarks, however, shed a new light on the emerging relationship between the Lebanese and U.S. militaries two months after the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam group was crushed in a 3-month long battle.
So, um – what happens when Hezbollah takes over the government and thus gains control electorally of the newly modernized Lebanese army? Or has nobody thought of that because there’s never been an example where the US armed a relatively fragile and relatively moderate Arab government only to see it overthrown and have all of the security assistance fall into the hands of genocidal lunatics? All 200 tons of the security assistance?
References:
* * State Dept Pushing Congress To Move Abject Failure Keith Dayton To West Bank [MR]
* Pentagon: U.S. to build ‘strategic partnership’ with Lebanese army [Ha'aretz]
* Lebanon’s Government by Murder [LAT]
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It’s Israel’s Fault) [MR]
Previously:
* Of Course Cutting Edge Military Tech Ended Up In Hamas’s Hands – That’s Why You Shouldn’t Arm Relatively Weak Erstwhile Terrorists
* Senior Fatah Official: US and Israel Orchestrated Hamas Gaza Takeover
* US To Hamas Arms Trasnfer Watch – Abbas Support Low
