Quote from drmarkan:
Actually, the government there is too weak to take matters into their own hands. They fear Hezbollah and would not disarm them due to the fact that they constitute roughly 30% of the population. Also, Lebanon fears reprisals from Syria if they try to take down Hezbollah.
In my opinion, the best thing for Lebanon is if Israel goes in and takes Hezbollah out. If Lebanon tried to take Hezbollah out on their own, two things would occur. The first is an all out Civil War between the northern and southern regions of the country. Secondly, Syria gets involved fighting on the side of Hezbollah. The death toll in this scenario would be proportionately higher than what will be experienced in the current situation. Civil wars tend to have higher casualties for the country involved. With Israel there, the Lebanese government really is able to sit back and let it play out without having to look culpable.
The only other option the Lebanese had was to continue to ignore the problem, which is not an option that Israel can tolerate. Many of the Lebanese people just want peace for their country, and more everyday are fed up with Nasrallah and the problems the Shiites bring to the country.
Hopefully when this war is over, Hezbollah will be defeated beyond rebuilding a base in the country and Lebanon can go back to peace. I would hope as an act of good faith the Israelis would offer to help rebuild Lebanon's infrastructure along side them, and maybe offer to help train the Lebanese army so they are able to keep Hezbollah from regaining a foothold in the country. This would show the Arab world that Israel's main objective is to stop the aggression towards them and not to run all Arabs out of the region. This is pretty wishful thinking though.
