Word: hizballah
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...Earlier this week, I received an e-mail from a Lebanese who was present at the creation of the country's Iranian-backed, Shi'ite militia Hizballah in 1982 and on familiar terms with its most radical and violent members. He wrote: "Are you people crazy backing Mousavi, a patron of Hizballah's terrorist wing?" (See behind-the-scenes pictures of Mir-Hossein Mousavi...
...other candidates. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was an officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Iranian paramilitary force responsible for most of the terrorism against the U.S. Conservative Mohsen Rezaei was the Guards' commander. And Mehdi Karroubi, like Mousavi, was deeply involved in Lebanon in the '80s. According to my Hizballah contact, he too was a patron of Mughniyah...
...only way to de-fang Hizballah is to address the issue that motivated the creation of the group: the Middle East conflict itself. As long as Arabs are at war with Israel, one group or another will find a way to infiltrate Lebanon's fragmented society to create a front line against Israel. But if the U.S. pushes Israel to address Lebanese grievances, if Israel engages its neighbors in a sincere peace process, then Hizballah will have less and less justification to exist as an independent armed entity. Indeed, as a step towards decommissioning its arms, Hizballah could even become...
...might the U.S. go about talking to Hizballah? One way would be for the U.S. to engage the group under the fig leaf of dealing with the new Lebanese government. Something needs to be done, for the consequences of ignoring Hizballah will keep getting worse. A rematch between the group and Israel could escalate into a regional war, with Syria joining ranks with Hizballah, Israel bombing Iran's nuclear facilities, and Iran striking back at U.S. forces in Iraq. The unresolved conflict between Hizballah and Israel is becoming a national-security issue for America...
...Hizballah has never officially admitted culpability in the bombing of the old U.S. embassy. It is easy to see how negotiating with such an unrepentant foe can seem to dishonor the memory of Hizballah's victims. But talking with one's adversaries is the burden of peacemaking. We best honor the souls of dead diplomats by letting living diplomats do their work...