Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamroll
Hmm, I see. But don't Hezbullah have popular support? Also why is the government of Lebanon so weak? How can it be that they were so weak they could do nothing against Israeli attacks, but Hezbullah were able to hold their own? Doesn't it make sense for Hezbullah, a more stronger force to be in control of the country's security? Why do they have a private telephone network, and why is it a problem to the government? Btw, all these questions are just me being curious and trying to understand the situation, I'm not trying to debate you or anything at the moment.
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Hizbullah has popular support in some parts of Lebanon and are extremely hated in others.
Central government is weak for alot of reasons. They're always too terrified to unleash the lebanese Army (which is one of the only multicultural institutions in lebanon) because they dont want to start another civil war, which they certainly would. Also parliament has been locked in an impasse for over a year because of political conflicts between the opposition (including hizbullah) and the current government. Finally, the govt is rigged in some ways to be weak by two things, first of all the way the governing system was devised plays to communalism which means the country is always on the brink of all out war between the different groups. Secondly, the peace treaty at the end of the civil war put into effect measures to prevent further wars or dominance by one group. Importantly one of those measures was for all militias to disarm, which hizbullah and a few others ignored (and obviously the palestinians)
The Lebanese government chose not to fight the Israelis when they attacked, its not that they were powerless to fight them. They could have commanded Lebanese air defenses to fire on israeli jets and their infantry and armored forces to enter the war, but they decided not to.
It doesnt make sense for Hizbullah to be in charge of the country's security because they arent a national military that is accountable to the national government. They're the militia of a political party who answer only to their leaders
Hizbullah developed the phone network as part of the state within a state that they've constructed in south lebanon. They have checkpoints down there, official style government type offices, social services, jails, barracks, all kinds of facilities that political parties have no business having. The government wanted to take down their phone network because of two reasons- first, its illegal and gives hizbullah too much autonomy, second it would be a nice victory against Hizbullah. The leader of Hizbullah said that the phone network is one of Hizbullah's weapons and he would cut off the hand that tried to take it. So thats why Hizbullah killed people when the government tried to shut it down
(alot of that is my opinion obviously)
ws