The Case for the Lebanese Army
The time has come to restate the case for the Lebanese Army in western circles.
There have been a few interesting developments in the past weeks regarding the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).
First, the Aadaiseh incident in south Lebanon saw the Lebanese Army engage Israeli armed forces to prevent a perceived encroachment on the territory the LAF is tasked with defending. Although the results of the UN investigation into the incident are yet to be announced, the importance of the skirmish is hard to ignore; this was the first deadly confrontation between the LAF and the IDF since the former’s redeployment in south Lebanon in the summer of 2006. A confrontation that all importantly took place without the involvement of Hizbullah, the non-state actor that Israel has for so long tried to push back from its border with Lebanon.
The LAF’s deployment in the south and its taking over of border security from the aforementioned fundamentalist islamic militia marks the fulfilment of one the LAF’s most important nationally and internationally mandated missions (see UN-SC resolution 1559).
Israel’s reaction was swift and ruthless, its spokespeople, after tweaking their version of events one too many times, settled on assimilating the LAF to Hizbullah in an attempt to tarnish the credibility of the Lebanese government’s fighting force internationally.
Israel’s hawks in Washington were quick to move in an incredibly choreographed coup: the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs announcing only days later that it was suspending $100 million worth of badly needed US military assistance to the LAF. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee stated “concern of the influence Hizbullah may have on the LAF” as the reason for this sudden reconsideration of US foreign policy in a fascinating yet unsurprising echo of the official Israeli line.
Then came a reminder of another of the LAF’s internationally significant roles. On Saturday 14th of August a Lebanese Army intelligence unit made a move to arrest two top leaders in the Al-Qaida linked Fatah al-Islam group. Abdul Rahman Awadh and his associate Ghazi Faisal Abdullah, two wanted terrorists, later laid dead after they had opened fire on the LAF unit in a desperate final attempt to resist arrest. The pair were reportedly on their way to Iraq through Syria.
Few in the LAF have forgotten the huge sacrifices made during the 2007 month long Nahr-el-Bared campaign to neutralise Fatah-al-Islam, a group that plotted attacks on Lebanese and Western targets from the lawless confines of a Palestinian refugee camp.
170 LAF soldiers perished in an operation for which they were hopelessly under-equipped and ill-trained. Although ultimately successful thanks to shear courage, ingenuity and perseverance, the LAF cannot be expected to continue to be a serious partner in the war against terror if the US does not pick up a part of the financial and technological burden.
As Saturday’s confrontation has shown, the LAF continues to be successful in containing and preventing the spread of a breed of terror that could well reach US interests in Iraq or elsewhere.
As one of the only truly multi-faith fighting forces in the global war against terror and in an increasingly unfriendly neighbourhood, the Lebanese Army is an ally the US would be much worse off without.
With its dual mission to on one hand guarantee the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, therefore claiming Hizbullah’s main raison d’être, and on the other hand to defeat the forces of terror and prevent their deadly spread to other regions, the LAF deserves both the respect and support of the western world in general and the US in particular.
Israel’s attempts to undermine the LAF’s credibility internationally are nothing more than a shallow ploy. A Lebanon with a weaker and even less capable army would be a haven for would-be terrorists and a nightmare for US policymakers and counter terror efforts worldwide.
The case for supporting the Lebanese Army has never been stronger.
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