YaLibnan, Lebanon
April 12 2009

Lebanon’s defense strategy – Release 2

Published: Sunday, 12 April, 2009 @ 8:11 PM in Beirut
By: Karim Ghaoui
Special to Ya Libnan

The Lebanese Armed Forces’ primary mission is defending Lebanon and
its citizens against aggression, confronting threats against the
country’s vital interests, maintaining internal stability and
security, engaging in social development activities and undertaking
relief operations in coordination with public and humanitarian
institutions.

The LAF consists of roughly 72,000 active personnel with the Ground
Forces consisting of approximately 70,000 troops, the Air Force
consisting of about 1,000 personnel and another 1,000 in the
Navy. Lebanon has the 6th largest percentage of military expansion in
terms of personnel recruitment. What has triggered this trend? Could
it be the very few other employment options available? How many of
those individuals could contribute more productively without having to
lay dormant for months at a time, awaiting the next bloody conflict?

Lebanon’s equipment is severely outdated due to an intentional lack of
funds. But why is it that the availability of foreign funds that
should determine Lebanon’s possession of arsenal? For an unknown
reason, a local plan to develop hardware to cater for Lebanon’s
tactical and geographical needs is presently an inconceivable
idea. How is it that Israeli minds can, whilst we are so incapable?
How is it that we can’t even include a USD$10 million fire-fighting
aircraft in the national budget whilst our politicians have
transferred our airport into a private jet pit-stop?

Any levelheaded person will admittedly agree that Lebanon’s
frustratingly unique internal politics has been marked with distrust
and corruption. This has been the reason Lebanese governments have
purposefully kept our armed forces small and weak. Our fear of each
other, Christians of Muslims or vice versa is why we are so vulnerable
to relatively unopposed invasions by our neighbors. We have always had
the fear of using our weapons against our own. Aside of the two major
conflicting views, prominent Lebanese politicians of differing
religious denominations have been feudal warlords commanding their own
private militias and fearing that a strong army would endanger their
personal power. For this reason, Lebanon has never spent more than 4%
of its GNP on the military budget. Our political and religious
problems have remained unchanged throughout modern history, so what
makes us think that we can increase the capability of our defense
force now?

Lebanon’s strength and pride lies in its ground forces and it is by
far the largest of Lebanon’s military branches. Our ground forces are
equipped with 11 or 12 Mechanized Brigades divided into our 5 regional
commands. The Lebanese Forces are excessively proud of their commando
regiments, airborne regiments, and navy SEALS regiments as part of the
Lebanese Special Forces. All which receive specific and intensive
training in harsh mountainous and snowy terrain. Some receive more
advanced training in the US or France. It’s encouraging to hear of
such bravery and dedication yet how many of Lebanon’s battles have
involved engaging an enemy in our snowy terrain? What is it that the
US and France can provide in terms of physical training that Lebanese
individuals cannot? Is it possible that Lebanon’s defense budget may
one day account for this so that vital funds are not wasted on
overseas trips but rather on more pressing needs?

85% of Lebanon’s hardware is US made whilst the rest is contributed
mainly by the French, British, or the Russian governments. The
Lebanese Army still uses old and outdated equipment, mostly received
through donations. Lebanon’s pride is the M113 which is commonly found
with every regiment and brigade. A list of awaited equipment is
continually growing and includes Leopard 1/A5 tanks, M60 Patton tanks,
and M198 Howitzers. All are deemed useless considering the form of
aggression the Lebanese nation has faced in recent history. A Russian
promise to supply Lebanon with T-90 tanks has been in
discussion. Other hardware in the pipeline includes 10 modified Soviet
MIG-29s. The question remains, how worthwhile are they compared to the
hundreds of Israeli fighters, or is this simply another cold-war PR
act on behalf of the Soviets?

The navy, which currently lacks the suitable amount of equipment, has
a number of approximately 50 vessels of various sizes and roles;
however, the navy is trying to modernize itself, and increase its
size. The Lebanese Air Force currently has a number of helicopters
including the UH-1H Bell Huey, Gazelle, and various others. In 2008,
the Lebanese Army started establishing the Special Operations command
in order to group the Army’s elite units. These Special Operations
forces will include the key Regiments, and the Counter-Sabotage
Regiment of the Military Intelligence. The initial size of the force
will be less than two brigades, around 5,000 troops, but the plan is
to enlarge it up to three brigades.

Despite all these cosmetic upgrades, the week-long clashes that
occurred at the beginning of the month of May 2008 in Lebanon, the
army did not prevent rival Lebanese groups from fighting each other
because this would have resulted in a division of the military along
sectarian lines, something that happened during the civil war.

Traditionally, when fighting stops in an area, the LAF deploys to
enforce peace. On May 13th 2008, the Army threatened that if fighting
did not end by the next morning, it would have intervened and used
force to stop the clashes. Unfortunately, this had already been too
late for many unarmed young lives, protecting their livelihoods,
villages and families. How does such a defense force maintain
integrity and expand despite the current deplorable political
constitutions and structures?

Let’s look at Israel’s defense structure. They do not simply acquire
obsolescent hardware. They employ Israeli citizens in Israeli public
and private industry. Surely they draw international contracts and
treaties, but who doesn’t? What contracts are the LAF going to draw
upon receipt of our MIG-29s? Will Lebanese be servicing those
aircrafts? Can Lebanese manufacturing develop spare parts? Will there
be any contracts to advance Lebanese industry? Israelis at least,
primarily seek self-sufficiency. They also recognise there
differences. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has striven to be a
unique army striving to fit Israel’s specific requirements. The IDF
uses several technologies developed in Israel, specifically to match
the IDF’s needs, such as the Merkava main battle tank, Uzi submachine
gun, and the Galil and Tavor assault rifles. It has close military
relations with the United States by whom it is heavily financially
aided. This has fostered development cooperation, such as on the F-15I
jet, and the THEL laser defense system. Meanwhile, Lebanon bargains
with the US over petty quantities of M16s. Israel spends 9% of its GDP
on defense. That amounts to over USD$10 billion per annum whereas we
rarely exceed USD$0.5 billion. It is also blaringly obvious that Arabs
are incapable of developing military alliances as nations so how do we
plan to defend Lebanon from an invading aggressor alone?

Israel has compulsory national military service for all its minority
groups. Most are glad to participate in protecting their homeland. How
do Lebanese-Armenians help defend Anjar and the southeast? Why is it
that the Armenian presence in parliament far exceeds their
representation in the defense force? This is not an attack on
Lebanon’s Armenian community, but simply a typical example regularly
seen across the board.

Can their not be a specific battalion that the local communities can
trust and support and can be made entirely of its ethnic population?
Can Lebanon’s Hezbollah supporters not defend their south if they are
being asked to by a Lebanese Military Commander In Chief rather than a
Hezbollah figurehead? Why do we not construct an LAF managed border
police structure where former Hezbollah militants and their stores are
integrated into the LAF and armed by the LAF where they may be
responsible for security in heavy urban areas such as the boundaries
of the notorious Ain El-Hilweh? Or will that simply ease the flow of
illegal weapons into our refugee camps? Why does the country think I’m
insane at the last proposition, or does our distrust of our fellow
citizens make us dismiss such ideas? Why is it that we are so
detracted to bring such matters out into the open?

Israel has a structure where overseas volunteers, young, Non-Israeli
Jews, who can be trained in combat units. There are over 15 million
Lebanese dispersed world-wide, many also unemployed and very
willing. Hypothetically speaking, will Lebanon’s new defense strategy
devise plans to train those that are willing to contribute in times of
need?

More recently, a promise has been made by the new US cabinet to supply
Raven Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to patrol our borders. Is that our
country’s Early Warning System? Who and what will those crafts be
monitoring exactly? What is it that UNIFIL do then? Who will be the
first to shoot down those UAVs, I wonder? Here’s an idea! Wouldn’t we
provide a better a service to the population if we developed more
effective means to defend our power plants? We all know where Israel
aims first when targeting Lebanon’s infrastructure. Or have we learnt
nothing from the last 30 years?

I won’t even begin to compare military arsenal as Israel may possess
close to 400 nuclear warheads. I do not write this article in aim of
humiliating my own. But how do we defend ourselves without
contemplating the bare facts. Our military structure and the politics
surrounding it are pre-Napoleonic. Much needs doing before flaunting
the idea of defending our borders militarily. I am sure that our
`Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty’ to our Lebanon is true. It is true however
in everyone’s unique ways. Stripping Hezbollah of their artillery is
another topic for another day. For now however, we are far from
creating a united defense structure that truly exists to defend
Lebanon’s borders, integrity, and its people as a whole. One thing is
for sure, buying random military hardware without a national objective
does not comprise a defense strategy.

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