Rhetoric and reality

Uh-huh. Everyone likes to talk about troops to stabilize Lebanon and - perhaps - allow it to become a real state that can stand alone (minus Syrian, Israeli, or Iranian influence and minus a paramilitary force that is virtually a state unto itself). There's just no one willing to put their troops into the sort of environment that drove France, the US, and Israel out of Hezbollah's 'space' in the past. So, in the end, we abandon the idea of strengthening Lebanon as a state because the political will to commit real forces to dealing with the problem doesn't yet exist. (sigh).

"They only had one small condition for the force to be made up of soldiers from another country,” Mr. Barnea wrote. “The Germans recommended France; the French recommended Egypt, and so on. It is doubtful whether there is a single country in the West currently volunteering to lay down its soldiers on Hezbollah’s fence."