Abraham Mahshie: As Lebanon teeters, Pentagon says support for armed forces keeps Hezbollah at bay/إبراهيم محشي: في حين أن الدولة اللبنانية تتعرض لهزات مصيرية، يقول البنتاغون بأن دعم الجيش اللبناني ضروري لأنه يبقي حزب الله بعيداً عن وضع حزب الله يده بالكامل على البلد
As Lebanon teeters, Pentagon says support for armed forces keeps Hezbollah at bay
Abraham Mahshie/The Washington Examiner/July 16/2020 إبراهيم محشي: في حين أن الدولة اللبنانية تتعرض لهزات مصيرية، يقول البنتاغون بأن دعم الجيش اللبناني ضروري لأنه يبقي حزب الله بعيداً عن وضع حزب الله يده بالكامل على البلد
It is not uncommon to see the image of slain Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Shiite neighborhoods of southern Beirut. But past Martyrs’ Square, once the east-west dividing line between Christians and Muslims during the country’s civil war, the city begins to change.
The Mar Mikhael neighborhood is lined with fashionable bars and nightclubs where live music floated deep into the humid night before the coronavirus hit.
Shiny new European architecture, coffee shops, art galleries, and high-end fashion replaced bombed-out buildings. Pastel-colored apartment “villages” with ivy-covered walls and elegant balconies are a far cry from the 1976-2005 era of frequent terrorist attacks and Syrian army occupation.
But crisis has now hit Lebanon in a way not felt since the civil war. The Lebanese pound has devalued over 60% since the start of the year, and poverty grips a proud people.
As Lebanon teeters on the brink of economic collapse, U.S. military leaders urge continued support for the Lebanese Armed Forces in the face of an alternative, a takeover by Iran-supported Hezbollah.
“Clearly, Lebanese Hezbollah, they want to have a role in the government,” U.S. Central Command’s Gen. Frank McKenzie said in a recent Middle East Institute discussion.
“The counterbalance for us is the LAF, the Lebanese Armed Forces, not a perfect relationship and not a perfect organization by any means, but one that we should view aspirationally is ultimately the expression of state security in Lebanon,” he said. “It should be the LAF. It shouldn’t be anybody else.”
Meanwhile, some Republicans in Congress, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, say funding to the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese government should be cut off despite the military’s perceived independence.
“There is a fundamental contradiction in our policy toward Lebanon,” an aide to the Texas Republican told the Washington Examiner.
“Which is it? Is the LAF an independent institution that we’re funding, or is the LAF entirely subordinate to a Hezbollah-controlled government?” he said. “He thinks this is a basic test. We’re funding state institutions. Are those institutions controlled by terrorists or not?”
“The land of less than perfect choices”
Cruz is one of many members of Congress who believe U.S. “nation-building” efforts in the Middle East especially have failed, giving the example of Iraq, where state institutions built up by America became dominated by Iran.
Since 2005, the United States has provided $2.29 billion to train, equip, and guide the Lebanese Armed Forces.
The aid has helped preserve peace in a tense society of 18 religious sects and secured influence in the critical geopolitical space.
In 15 years, some 30,000 Lebanese service members have been trained by the U.S., including many senior officers, who have integrated into the ranks of a professional, apolitical military.
The LAF patrols the border with Syria, prevents terrorism, and assures stability in a Mediterranean country that has borders with both Syria and Israel.
But Hezbollah has also gained influence.
The Iranian-backed militant group, sanctioned as a terrorism organization by the State Department since 1997, entered politics and now controls the government.
Hezbollah represents the interests of the country’s Shia population in a complex multisectarian political system that has prevented another civil war. But that system has also spurred widespread protests.
U.S. military leaders and experts say that supporting the LAF is about understanding nuance in a complex and volatile place.
“In U.S. Central Command, we live in the land of less than perfect choices,” said McKenzie. “I support continued funding to the LAF.”
He continued, “They offer the best opportunity to provide security and sovereignty for Lebanon. And while that will never be perfect, nonetheless, it’s the best that we can do under very difficult circumstances.”
Earlier this year, Cruz moved to pass legislation that would stop the U.S. from supporting any country controlled by a terrorist group. His aide says that consensus is now growing among Republicans.
LAF expert and Carnegie Middle East scholar Aram Nerguizian told the Washington Examiner that understanding how U.S. military support for the LAF keeps Hezbollah at bay is fundamental.
“If you want to do the one thing Hezbollah really wants you to do, that one thing that would be their wet dream in geopolitical terms, this is it, go do it and it serves their interests,” he said of cutting off U.S. military assistance to the LAF.
“The Lebanese people trust the military to be nonpartisan. That’s something that is very difficult to say about any other institution,” Nerguizian explained. “Should the current government fail outright and resign or be pushed out by the political forces that be, the LAF game plan remains unchanged: preserve and defend a critical relationship with the U.S. government in general and CENTCOM in particular at all costs.”
McKenzie reaffirmed U.S. military support for Lebanon with a visit in late June.
The visit followed anti-American uproar when comments by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea led to protests and a judge’s order banning journalists from interviewing her for a year.
Shea had criticized Hezbollah’s government officials for corruption and its leader for anti-American comments and expressed “serious reservations” about the new Hezbollah-backed government of Lebanon.
American criticism for Hezbollah is nothing new.
The group is linked to the April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in West Beirut that killed 17 Americans and to an October 1983 truck bombing of American Marine barracks that killed 241 U.S. military personnel.
American diplomats serving in Beirut now live and work on a heavily fortified compound north of the city.
Nerguizian explained that now more than ever, American military aid must continue as the Lebanese government cuts back its own funding amid the economic crisis and Hezbollah attempts to replace senior military and intelligence leaders. Likewise, as Hezbollah fails at governing and managing the country’s crucial Western banking relationships, he said they will be pushed out.
“It’s very easy in my line, and frankly intellectually shallow, to make a very simple equation that Hezbollah equals Lebanon and thereby LAF equals Hezbollah. It’s a bit of a cop-out,” he said. “It’s messy because Lebanon is messy, and Hezbollah is the elephant in the room. But not having these equities means the U.S. is not a player.”
He continued: “Hezbollah has actively worked to discredit the successes of the LAF, and this generation of senior LAF officers is resentful of them, does not see unity of direction. They don’t want to go in the direction that Hezbollah has planned out for the country.”
“They look at the U.S. military as an older brother”
Cmdr. Zachary Harrell, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, told the Washington Examiner that the U.S. is Lebanon’s top security partner.
“The U.S. and Lebanon share the goal of building the LAF capacity as the sole legitimate defender of Lebanon’s sovereignty,” he said.
U.S. security assistance money to Lebanon never leaves American financial institutions.
Annually, more than $100 million in assistance is transferred to U.S. banks and then is deducted to pay for education and training, counterterrorism, border security, and equipment such as M2 Bradley fighting vehicles, M109 howitzers, and Humvees that have professionalized the LAF and distanced it from Russia, Syria, and Iran.
“They look at the U.S. military as an older brother in a sense,” Nerguizian said of the LAF.
But Nerguizian said that does not mean the LAF will confront Hezbollah directly.
“The military is not going to take the initiative in the way some people would like,” he said. “It’s not going to be the institution that basically triggers what looks like a civil war against Lebanon’s Shia community.”
McKenzie said that while Hezbollah’s relationship with Iran is a concern, he does not believe the group is at the beck and call of Iran.
“We worry about their relationship to Iran,” he said. “Although I do not think that Lebanese Hezbollah necessarily answers immediately when Iran calls. I do think they have a strong and powerful relationship.”
For that reason, Cruz’s aide argues that the senator’s position to suspend assistance is warranted.
“We’re the United States. We don’t deal with army units. We deal with countries. We deal with governments,” the aide said. “His legislation to say if a terrorist organization has seized control of the government, then we should cut off military assistance, should not be controversial.”
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