Not Quite the Cavalry

The first shipment of a new round of American military aid arrived in Lebanon yesterday, 20 Humvees of an expected total of 285 that the US is delivering to the Lebanese army this year.

The vehicles are part of the $40-odd million in military aid that President Bush granted Lebanon late last year. A US State Department official told TIME that there is a special Pentagon website where the Lebanese can put together a online shopping list of military materiel.

But there is one important category of military hardware that won't be on the Lebanese list. Although the US government is giving the country ammunition, vehicles, and other supplies, they aren't giving the Lebanese actual weapons.

This means that Hizballah, the anti-Israeli militia, will continue to be the best-armed military force in the country. Iran and Syria, Hizballah's patrons, have re-supplied the group with rockets and other heavy weapons of the type that allowed it to face down the Israeli army when they fought this summer, according to the Israeli government.

It also means that the Lebanese Armed Forces will continue to be unprepared to face the country's many security threats: not just weapons smuggling, but drug running, and terrorist infiltration. The latter is a major concern not just to the Lebanese, but to Western diplomats here who worry that that radical foreign groups could try to take advantage of Lebanon's current political crisis to sow sectarian conflict, much as Al Qaeda did in Iraq.

As its stands, the LAF operates Vietnam-era American and Soviet armor and weapons so obsolete that spare parts are often unavailable. Its only air force consists of a few old Huey helicopters that pilots call "flying coffins." It has no navy except for 4 or 5 patrol boats; no border sensors; no night vision goggles; and minimal special forces. To completely revamp the LAF for its current role would require about $1 billion and three years of training, according to some analysts. If the US really wants Lebanon to remain an open, peaceful country in a dangerous region, it's going to have to do more than send trucks.

By Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut