Since Israeli forces invaded south Lebanon and began battling Hizbollah fighters on the ground for the first time in two decades, there has been a noticeable absentee from the conflict: the Lebanese army.
The weakness of the Lebanese Armed Forces is testament to the fragile and fractured state of a country whose military has little or no capacity to defend against invaders. Indeed, it has not even been the most powerful force in the country: that title belongs to the Iran-backed militant group Hizbollah, which controls southern Lebanon.
“The Lebanese army has a different function than any other military,” said Sami Atallah, director of The Policy Initiative think-tank in Beirut. “The army doesn’t have the resources to defend its territory. Rather it’s used to maintain domestic stability.”