A Conflict of Interest
Lebanese Army Forces Commander General Jean Kahwaji visits the targeted army outpost in Al-Adaysseh on the Lebanese-Israeli border on 4 August 2010.
Don’t Cut off Lebanon’s Aid
Carnegie Endowment
Paul Salem
In a recent article by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Paul Salem discusses the US’s changing relationship with Lebanon, after the recent clash between Israel and Lebanon along with growing accusations that Hezbollah’s influence over the Lebanese military is increasing. In his concise analysis Salem highlights that American interests are not always best protected by alienating groups with possible ties to Hezbollah, especially if these tactics of alienation imply cutting off American funding to the Lebanese military.
The US congress has recently made moves to stop military aid to this strategically critical Arab country. And while Hezbollah’s influence within Lebanon, and particularly its military, is a cause for American concern, reducing funding will create exactly the type of scenario that the US should avoid. Salem argues that “stopping funding will weaken the government and military, empower Hezbollah and strengthen Syrian and Iranian influence in Lebanon.”
To understand why the decline or full stop of American military aid to Lebanon would be detrimental to American interests in the region, it should be noted that the US currently is the main supporter of the Lebanese armed forces, having provided over $700 million USD in military aid since 2005.
Interestingly, part of the surge in American support for the Lebanese army followed the Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006 and Lebanon’s success in removing an Al-Qaeda- linked group from a Palestinian refugee camp. In other words, American military aid has been useful in stabilizing Lebanon in the past so why is it that now this utility is being reevaluated?
Given the recent tensions in the country, fears have been raised on the US side that the aid being provided could fall into Hezbollah’s hands. However, argues Salem, the claims that Hezbollah is infiltrating the higher more powerful ranks of Lebanon’s army are not true.
Instead, he explains, “ The military—which reflects the country’s groups and communities, with Christian, Shiite, Sunni and Druze personnel included—is actually an important counterweight to Hezbollah.” While there may be officers who lean towards the biggest Shi’ite party in the country, others are strong supporters of the president and prime minister. “That’s Lebanon. The head of the army, General Jean Qahwahi and the commander in chief, Suleiman are both Maronite Christians. And the top officer corps is roughly mixed. Despite Hezbollah’s influence, it does not control the armed forces.”
In his argument to continue American support of the Lebanese army, Salem makes two important references to other situations that could shed light on what the best approach would be towards an army with a less than ideal influence. Take Pakistan for instance. Pakistan is a very important player in the US’s war in Afghanistan. However, the country’s intelligence agency, the ISI, is unreliable to say the least. As the most recent Wikileaks story explained, their links to the Taliban are clear. But this has not stopped the US from supporting the Pakistani army, recognizing that doing so would create an incentive for the ISI to pick one team instead of playing both sides. Given the complexity of the conflict, the US has preferred to keep an unreliable partner rather than alienate that partner completely and turn it into an enemy.
Likewise, Salem explains that stopping aid to the Lebanese military would result in a similar problem as when Israel decided to undermine the Palestinian Authority, because they disagreed with certain things about them. “ Weakening the PA strengthened Hamas,” he argues, and should Congress stop military aid to Lebanon “it would be empowering Hezbollah.”
The recent tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border shed light on the possibility of another war between Hezbollah and Israel. However, this tense situation should not be misread. To avoid having Lebanon look to Syria and Iran for military support, the US Congress should reevaluate its aims to cut aid to Lebanon lest they do more harm than good in the process.
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