Speaking in Cairo on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo set an
uncomfortabe goal for the United States in Lebanon, the expulsion of
Hezbollah. He said the US would never accept the status quo, wherein Hezbollah has a “major presence” in Lebanon.
The US has always had a problem with Hezbollah, viewing them as a
terrorist organization because of their history of fighting Israel. Yet
beyond its fighting force, Hezbollah is a huge faction inside Lebanon,
including a major political party within the current ruling coalition.
While Pompeo tried to spin Hezbollah as part of “Iranian adventurism”
across the region, the reality is that Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based
organization that is thoroughly Lebanese. There is no place to expel
them to.
Saying that the US will not accept the status quo effectively means the
US will continue to interfere in Lebanese elections going forward,
“warning” the Lebanese voters against electing a Hezbollah-backed
government. So far, that hasn’t been very successful, and Hezbollah’s
political fortunes don’t seem to be substantially hurt by the US.
The overt arrogance of Americans is astonishing.
Their occasional honesty about their goals is also astonishing. Even Hitler pretended it wasn’t so.
So next elections Hezbollah will pick up seats with endorsements like that.
“There is no place to expel them to.”
During the last Israeli attack on Lebanon, the civilian population was widely evacuated to the north. The whole region south of the Litani River was largely vacated, and Israel then densely sowed it with IED’s in the form of millions of dud cluster bombs to keep them from coming back — which worked for a time.
Yes, they can be expelled. No doubt Israel noticed they were, and plans next time to drive them further and keep them from coming back. Each Israeli attack is an escalation, and this seems likely to be next.
The problem is that next time, tel avivians will be simultaneously “expelled” too. And when the war dust settles, Lebanese refugees will return to their land, and Palestinian refugees will return to their lands too – evicted israeli invaders will use their second passports to get the eff out of the Levant.
Hubris, thy name is Pompeo…
Fat A$$ Pompeo “viewing them as a terrorist organization because of their history of fighting Israel”. Anyone fighting Israel is a freedom fighter, fighting terrorists.
Murica “warning” the Lebanese voters against electing a Hezbollah-backed government”? Oh, the irony …. The Lebanese can vote for whoever they want to you Fat A$$!
All the problems to be fixed in the United States and here we have, as always, American “leaders” telling other nations how to go about their business! This world would be a much better place if the USA would mind its own business and quit protecting nations like Israel from prosecution for war crimes. If the USA TRULLY wants nations around Israel to ease up on their DEFENSES, it should first attempt to curtail Israel’s belligerent behavior! That is the main reason organizations like Hezbollah exist- to protect nations like Lebanon from attack from its neighbors! If Hezbollah is to go because of ITS activities, then the US National Gurads should be dismnissed by the same rationale! Quit enabling Israel’s crimes and the need for organizations like Hezbollah will decrease!
I wholeheartedly agree on this issue. Fat a$$ Pompeo must be fired .. he’s a dangerous threat to our security, and he has NO right whatsoever to tell Lebanese voters not to vote for a Hezbollah-backed gov’t. The Lebanese can vote for whomever they want, and there’s nothing that fat pompous a$$ can’t do a thing about it.
The only reason Lebanese voters would vote for a Hezbollah-backed gov’t is for Lebanon’s safety from Israeli aggression. The Zionist Entity launched a war of aggression against Lebanon back in 2006 – from the air and from the ground. The IOF pilots bombed civilian areas, including Kana, the site of Jesus Christ’s miracle of changing water into wine at a wedding feast in the city; while IOF ground troops invaded southern Lebanon. They never counted on Hezbollah forces being in the area; but they were, and they smashed the invaders, sending the survivors running back into Israel with their tails between their legs, crying like babies.
The Zionist Entity has never attempted another invasion of Lebanon since that awful defeat, and Hezbollah’s paramilitary forces have grown into more than 30,000 men .. no wonder, Israel’s afraid of them, its military doesn’t compare to that of Hezbollah.
the usa needs to be expelled from its psychosis…Seriously…
How strange how any group or nation that dares to defend it self from israeli/usa terrorism is a terrorist? George Orwell would be shaking his head, asi i do…Utter nausea..
Asked to comment upon The Pompous One’s dictates, the average Lebanese probably says something in Arabic that goes something like, “We’ve heard the wind blow before”.
As I’ve said many times here, the entire Syrian crisis was intended to degrade Syria’s military in the same manner as the attack on Libya, with the ultimate aim of allowing Israel to attack Hizballah in Lebanon. This would set the necessary preconditions for Israel, and the US to attack Iran, because Israel can not get a war started with Iran while Hizballah in Lebanon has the ability to rain 6,500 missiles a day down on Israel.
Now that the Syria war has been lost by Israel and the US, thanks to Russia, the only thing Israel and the US neocons can do now is to turn their attention directly to Lebanon, which in an Iran war is more of a threat to Israel than Syria.
However, the US and Israel are between a rock and a hard place. Israel can’t afford to attack Hizballah because Israel would then suffer the same effects as would occur if Hizballah intervened in a war with Iran started by Israel. The only way this might be mediated to some degree is if the US also attacks Hizballah in concert with Israel.
But the US really doesn’t have of an effective way to do this. Air (and sea) power is mostly useless against Hizballah, as Israel discovered in the 2006 war. Putting ground troops into Lebanon would be difficult without Syria to use to attack Hizballah’s right flank (the original plan) or Israel as a launching pad and would likely produce many casualties, also as Israel discovered in 2006.
So Israel and the US remain in a standoff with Hizballah. It’s unclear whether Trump – as part of his anti-Iran stance – can be persuaded to launch another very difficult war in Lebanon having just lost the one in Syria.
The only certainty is that Israel and the US neocons will continue to push for some resolution to the standoff, because Israel and the neocons want Iran gone and the only way to get that war started is to defang Hizballah first, so Israel can have a “cheap war” with Iran, with the US doing the heavy lifting and Israel not subject to a missile barrage from Lebanon.
I suggest that Lebanon insists it will not accept the Republican Party in the USA. I am sure many other countries would support this decision, and many would also insist they will not accept the “Democratic Party” either. We may even find some suggestions for what other countries would like the USA to employ as foreign policies-non-interference in other countries, for example.
Pompeo’s bluster opens up the great fear about Trump’s pullout from Syria: that it’s just a consolidation of US resources so new wars can be launched culminating in an assault on Iran.
Given Bibi’s grip on Jared and Trump this is always a real danger.
Making empty threats is stupid.