On Sunday, Hizballah held a military parade in the Syrian city of Qusayr, located about ten miles from the Lebanese border; among the armaments on display were American-made armored personnel carriers (APCs). It’s quite possible that these were given to the terrorist organization by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), as Beirut is the fifth-largest recipient of American military aid. While the APCs could also have been plundered from the now-defunct South Lebanese Army, the fact remains that the LAF has become an ally of Hizballah, as Lee Smith writes:
The 2016 U.S. appropriations bill to Lebanon stipulated that military aid must be used “to professionalize the LAF and to strengthen border security and combat terrorism, including training and equipping the LAF to secure Lebanon’s borders, interdicting arms shipments, [and] preventing the use of Lebanon as a safe haven for terrorist groups.” The military assistance was also intended to help Lebanon “implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” [by] disarming Hizballah and helping the government of Lebanon take full control of all its territory.
The parade in Qusayr shows that the opposite is the case. U.S. funding has done nothing to enhance the LAF’s ability to assert the sovereignty of the Beirut government, and instead has enhanced Hizballah’s ability to wage war in Syria. Indeed, the point of the parade was to show that Hizballah runs parts of Syrian terrain as well—with the help of the LAF.
[Even if] the LAF didn’t transfer the [APCs], . . . the LAF is still responsible because it did nothing to stop the party of God [Hizballah] as it took the equipment to the Syrian border and then across it. The Security Council resolutions were intended to ensure Lebanese sovereignty and sever Hizballah’s pipeline to Syria. Instead, the LAF, with the support of the White House, has helped Hizballah violate Lebanon’s sovereignty, as well as Syria’s, for that matter. The Lebanese Armed Forces are incapable of fulfilling any part of the requirements laid out in the appropriations bill. And that’s not simply because it’s an incompetent force, but rather because it’s under Hizballah’s control. . . .
[I]n continuing to support the Lebanese army, the Obama White House is actively supporting the pro-Iran axis in the Syrian conflict. And this is part of a larger regional pattern, evident in Iraq as well, where Iranian-backed Shiite militias are also using American-made military equipment. . . . Congress should move immediately to defund the Lebanese Armed Forces.
Read more on Weekly Standard: http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-lebanese-army-is-misusing-u.s.-aid/article/2005389