That strategy of leashing the IDF during Lebanon II to protect the Siniora regime is really working out great:

Parliament on Friday again failed to meet on electing a new president, as Lebanon's factions deadlocked over a tangle of issues, including an amendment to the constitution and the shape of a future government... But installing Gen. Michel Suleiman as president requires an amendment to the constitution, which currently bars a sitting army commander from holding the post. The feuding factions cannot agree on how to change the constitution. In a perhaps even tougher obstacle, Christian opposition leader and presidential hopeful Michel Aoun, is demanding a "political understanding" on a future Cabinet to replace that of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora before he will allow a vote on Suleiman. The opposition demands 45 percent of the seats in the next Cabinet and a "compromise prime minister" to head the government, said Ibrahim Kenaan, a member of Aoun's 23-member mainly Christian bloc. Government supporters were refusing to discuss the demands, he said Thursday.

Aoun is the Christian fig leaf of Hezbollah, willing to tear his country apart in pathetic attempts to garner the tiniest extra bit of power. His hand was strengthened last August when elections meant to bolster the oh-so-moderate Siniora somehow went awry and ended up bolstering Iranian proxies. Weird how that keeps happening in regions of the world where foreign policy sophisticates insist there are a ton of moderates.

Incidentally, wouldn't the State Department look really silly if they decided to give Lebanon cutting edge military technology and training just as the government fell to Iranian proxies? That would be both totally unforeseeable and totally unprecedented, huh?

References:
* Hezbollah's New Museum Is Breathtakingly Ungrateful For Massive US Help During Lebanon II [MR]
* Lebanon Presidential Vote Postponed [TIME]
* Hizballah's Christian Soldiers? [TIME]
* List of Things That Would Cause Us to Have More Sympathy for Lebanon's Prime Minister [MR]
* Pentagon Gets Brilliant Idea: Let's Give Lebanon Cutting-Edge Military Tech, Training [MR]
* Hezbollah Recruiting Thousands Of New Soldiers Thanks To US Diplomatic Failures, Lebanese Electoral Crisis (Plus: State Department Wants To Repeat Same Plan In West Bank And Wants Your Feedback) [MR]
* Hamas Has 200 Tons Of Explosives That The US Gave To Fatah (Plus: Egypt Says It's Israel's Fault) [MR]

Previously:
* Surprisingly, Hezbollah Failing To Play Constructive Role In Lebanese Politics
* Our Favorite Part of this AP Story is the Phrase "Hezbollah's representative in Iran"
* Lebanon Threatening To Go To War With Israel Over Israeli Border Violation That Didn't Happen