The U.S. Sent Over $3 Billion to Hezbollah's 'Army'
by Daniel Greenfield • February 20, 2025 at 5:00 am
The State Department has spent nearly two decades selling the myth that empowering the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] will weaken Hezbollah, but after $3 billion in spending, Hezbollah is more powerful than ever, while American taxpayers are stuck with financing its auxiliary force in the hopes of defeating it.
Hezbollah won't disarm, nor will the LAF disarm it or prevent it from attacking Israel, because Lebanon's entire balance of power depends on aiming Hezbollah's weapons at Israel.
The $3 billion dollars that America squandered on the LAF... didn't counter Shiite Islamic rule, it enabled it.
Steube's PAGER Act would cut off further funds to the LAF until the "Lebanese Armed Forces ceases coordination and support with Hezbollah" and the "Lebanese Armed Forces cease coordination and support with Iran".
Lebanon's government is a Hezbollah puppet regime. The LAF is a puppet army.
In 2006, after a Hezbollah invasion, Israel launched a military campaign against the Islamic terrorist group. After a month of fighting, the Bush administration forced a ceasefire under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that required the disarmament of Hezbollah and its replacement by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and a United Nations "peacekeeping" force.
How can Hezbollah claim victory, President George W. Bush wondered, when they were "going to be replaced by a Lebanese Army and an international force?"
The answer was quite obvious. The LAF and UNIFIL didn't replace Hezbollah, they were co-opted by it. And nearly two decades later, Hezbollah had far more firepower and attempted to launch its own version of Oct 7 until Israel neutered it with its pager operation.
