ISIS has announced that Lebanon will be the next state to fall under the sway of its “caliphate.” According to Beirut's Daily Star newspaper, the only reason ISIS hasn't attacked yet in force is because they haven't decided on the mission's commander.
The Lebanese army is one of the least effective in the Middle East—and that's saying something in a region where the far more capable Syrian and Iraqi armies are utterly failing to safeguard what should be their own sovereign territory.
So France is going to send a three billion dollar package of weapons to Lebanon and the Saudis are going to pay for it. It won't solve the problem any more than a full-body cast will cure cancer, but it beats standing around and not even trying.There is one significant difference, though: "Every family in Lebanon is armed to the gills thanks to the state being too weak and divided to provide basic security[.]" This doesn't guarantee victory--an armed mob is still a mob--and lack the skills and discipline to beat an organized force. But Lebanon has been fighting a civil war and foreigners off and on since the 1970's, so its militias are probably better trained than most of armies in the region.
(H/t Instapundit)
This makes me ill. Most of my Dads side of the family is in the Bekkaa Valley.
ReplyDeleteISIS probably hasn't chosen a commander because they have lost so many in recent airstrikes (heck, they probably chose a commander--or more than one--only to lose them in airstrikes).
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