Why didn't the Lebanon military get involved with the fighting, against Israel?

Question

Now some intelligent genius is going to tell me that its because the Israelis were fighting the Hizbollah and not the Lebanese. This I know already. What I dont understand is that if a neighbouring country of yours started shooting rockets into your cities, not after you but another ethnic group in your country, you would want/expect your military to do something about it?
So i ask 'Why didn't the Lebanon military get involved with the fighting, against Israel?'

Answer 1

Why should they help the terrorists?

Answer 2

Because (a) The Lebanese army was not in the area of invasion. Southern Lebanon was was only nominally part of Lebanon. It was really Hezbollahstan (b) The Lebanese Army is really not an army so much as a domestic police force. It does not have the personnell, the training or the weapons to fight a real army. There were some cases of Lebanese army shooting back in self defense when confronted by the Israelis -- but if they had sent in combat units they'd have been slaughtered.

Answer 3

I'm guessing it's an expansion issue- as it was, Israel was bombing everything they wanted, but if the Lebanese army were involved, Israel would have, firstly, thrashed them too; secondly, on the pretext that the Lebanese government was supporting the Hezbollah, they would have taken complete control of Lebanon again. It seems a painful thing, but I'm guessing that the Lebanese army had to stay out for there to be any hope of Lebanon keeping its independence.

Answer 4

The Lebanese army is simply the domestic paramilitary police force and are not trained for combat on this scale

If the government sent them to fight alongside Hezbollah, this would have changed the nature of the war and given Israel more cause to bomb more cities and murder more civilians. The government would be seen as sympathetic to the cause of Hezbollah--right or wrong.

It would have hurt their credibility during the during the cessation of hostilities. The decision was political and correct.

Answer 5

I credit JonMorit for this answer...

Here are the main facts about the Lebanese army:

* SIZE - 35,000 regular soldiers and 7,000 conscripts. This week the army called up an unspecified number of reserves, drawn from soldiers and officers who ended their service in the past five years, ahead of the possible deployment in the south.

* UNITS - Six mechanised brigades, five light brigades, one Republican Guard brigade, one support brigade and one logistics brigade. Also 11 regiments, including one commando and two artillery.

* ARMOUR - 60 M-48 U.S.-made tanks, 160 T-55 and T-56 Soviet-made tanks, 1,000 M113 U.S.-made armoured troop carriers.

* AIR FORCE - No fixed-wing planes. 23 UH1 U.S.-made helicopters using three bases. Israel has bombed all the bases.

* NAVY - 10 British-made coastguard boats, two French-built landing vessels and 40 combat support boats. Israeli air strikes have knocked out all naval radar stations.

No one is quite sure how many fighters Hezbollah has, but estimates ranger from around 12,000 active combatants to around 20,000.

The main problem is that they claim the Lebanese army is poorly trained and would struggle to defeat Hezbollah in open warfare. Yet in truth, they are organized and well trained.

Many of its soldiers would rather fight Israel than their Muslim brothers making it even more difficult.


Lebanon was ordered to disband all militia's other than their own army by the U.N.
Why would they do that when they openly support them?
and in answer to your question, why would they fight a well armed enemy when there's a well armed militia in your camp that can do it for you?

Answer 6

The Lebanese army last fought Israel in 1948 and then gave up. The two countries had a very peaceful relationship until all sorts of terrorists moved in.
The Lebanese are intelligent enough to know that they would be not be in the running

Answer 7

Hezbollah is seen in Lebanon as a social program not unlike wale fare. They write checks to the locals. Food, rebuilding.

Even though they use the poor civilian population as human shields by storing weapons in houses with children and hospitals, Hezbollah is not regarded as terrorist.

In Short, though not officially, the Lebanese govt is sympathetic to Hezbollah and their soldiers are friends, neighbors and family to the group.

Why politically commit yourself when a 3rd party is ready and willing? For Lebanon to officially enter into the Frey would be an act of WAR not TERRORISM. Hezbollah has no uniform.

Answer 8

Hezbollah is the military force in Lebanon. The Lebanon military are the reservist and provide internal support to the people only within the state. That is why the Lebanon military is almost non-existent when it comes to action against Israel.

Answer 9

The official posture of the Lebanese government, is that they are not at war with Israel, therefore it's army would not be in a postion to fight against Israel.

Answer 10

I don't know that much about the capability of the Lebanese army. But I suppose they didn't want to fight the Israelis.
If they had, Syria and Iran may have jumped in as well.
It's a miracle that war didn't escalate. But then, that was only round 1, I hate to say.

Answer 11

Because Hezbollah is not wanted in southern Lebanon by the majority of Lebanese and they don't have the strength to kick them out. with Hezbollah being backed by Iran and Syria.