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After $3 Billion from the U.S., Lebanese Military Is ill-Equipped to Stand Up to Hizbullah
(Wall Street Journal) Omar Abdel-Baqui - The Lebanese Armed Forces has for years fallen short of the West's aspirations for it to become the key to stabilizing the country. Despite $3 billion in U.S. funding since 2006, Lebanon's armed forces are ill-equipped to push aside Hizbullah. It has 70,000-80,000 active-duty soldiers, compared with up to 100,000 for Hizbullah. Lebanon's military was supposed to have disarmed Hizbullah with the help of a UN peacekeeping force, part of a 2006 UN agreement that ended an earlier war between Israel and Hizbullah. Instead, Hizbullah maintained a presence south of Lebanon's Litani River, an area it was supposed to vacate.