maintaining internal stability and security, engaging in social development activities and undertaking relief operations in coordination with public and humanitarian institutions.

The LAF consists of roughly 72,000 active personnel with the Ground Forces consisting of approximately 70,000 troops, the Air Force consisting of about 1,000 personnel and another 1,000 in the Navy. Lebanon has the 6th largest percentage of military expansion in terms of personnel recruitment. What has triggered this trend? Could it be the very few other employment options available? How many of those individuals could contribute more productively without having to lay dormant for months at a time, awaiting the next bloody conflict?

Lebanon’s equipment is severely outdated due to an intentional lack of funds. But why is it that the availability of foreign funds that should determine Lebanon’s possession of arsenal? For an unknown reason, a local plan to develop hardware to cater for Lebanon’s tactical and geographical needs is presently an inconceivable idea. How is it that Israeli minds can, whilst we are so incapable? How is it that we can’t even include a USD$10 million fire-fighting aircraft in the national budget whilst our politicians have transferred our airport into a private jet pit-stop?

Any levelheaded person will admittedly agree that Lebanon’s frustratingly unique internal politics has been marked with distrust and corruption. This has been the reason Lebanese governments have purposefully kept our armed forces small and weak. Our fear of each other, Christians of Muslims or vice versa is why we are so vulnerable to relatively unopposed invasions by our neighbors. We have always had the fear of using our weapons against our own. Aside of the two major conflicting views, prominent Lebanese politicians of differing religious denominations have been feudal warlords commanding their own private militias and fearing that a strong army would endanger their personal power. For this reason, Lebanon has never spent more than 4% of its GNP on the military budget. Our political and religious problems have remained unchanged throughout modern history, so what makes us think that we can increase the capability of our defense force now?

Lebanon’s strength and pride lies in its ground forces and it is by far the largest of Lebanon’s military branches. Our ground forces are equipped with 11 or 12 Mechanized Brigades divided into our 5 regional commands. The Lebanese Forces are excessively proud of their commando regiments, airborne regiments, and navy SEALS regiments as part of the Lebanese Special Forces. All which receive specific and intensive training in harsh mountainous and snowy terrain. Some receive more advanced training in the US or France. It’s encouraging to hear of such bravery and dedication yet how many of Lebanon’s battles have involved engaging an enemy in our snowy terrain? What is it that the US and France can provide in terms of physical training that Lebanese individuals cannot? Is it possible that Lebanon’s defense budget may one day account for this so that vital funds are not wasted on overseas trips but rather on more pressing needs?

85% of Lebanon’s hardware is US made whilst the rest is contributed mainly by the French, British, or the Russian governments. The Lebanese Army still uses old and outdated equipment, mostly received through donations. Lebanon’s pride is the M113 which is commonly found with every regiment and brigade. A list of awaited equipment is continually growing and includes Leopard 1/A5 tanks, M60 Patton tanks, and M198 Howitzers. All are deemed useless considering the form of aggression the Lebanese nation has faced in recent history. A Russian promise to supply Lebanon with T-90 tanks has been in discussion. Other hardware in the pipeline includes 10 modified Soviet MIG-29s. The question remains, how worthwhile are they compared to the hundreds of Israeli fighters, or is this simply another cold-war PR act on behalf of the Soviets?

The navy, which currently lacks the suitable amount of equipment, has a number of approximately 50 vessels of various sizes and roles; however, the navy is trying to modernize itself, and increase its size. The Lebanese Air Force currently has a number of helicopters including the UH-1H Bell Huey, Gazelle, and various others. In 2008, the Lebanese Army started establishing the Special Operations command in order to group the Army's elite units. These Special Operations forces will include the key Regiments, and the Counter-Sabotage Regiment of the Military Intelligence. The initial size of the force will be less than two brigades, around 5,000 troops, but the plan is to enlarge it up to three brigades.

Despite all these cosmetic upgrades, the week-long clashes that occurred at the beginning of the month of May 2008 in Lebanon, the army did not prevent rival Lebanese groups from fighting each other because this would have resulted in a division of the military along sectarian lines, something that happened during the civil war.

Traditionally, when fighting stops in an area, the LAF deploys to enforce peace. On May 13th 2008, the Army threatened that if fighting did not end by the next morning, it would have intervened and used force to stop the clashes. Unfortunately, this had already been too late for many unarmed young lives, protecting their livelihoods, villages and families. How does such a defense force maintain integrity and expand despite the current deplorable political constitutions and structures?

Let’s look at Israel’s defense structure. They do not simply acquire obsolescent hardware. They employ Israeli citizens in Israeli public and private industry. Surely they draw international contracts and treaties, but who doesn’t? What contracts are the LAF going to draw upon receipt of our MIG-29s? Will Lebanese be servicing those aircrafts? Can Lebanese manufacturing develop spare parts? Will there be any contracts to advance Lebanese industry? Israelis at least, primarily seek self-sufficiency. They also recognise there differences. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has striven to be a unique army striving to fit Israel's specific requirements. The IDF uses several technologies developed in Israel, specifically to match the IDF's needs, such as the Merkava main battle tank, Uzi submachine gun, and the Galil and Tavor assault rifles. It has close military relations with the United States by whom it is heavily financially aided. This has fostered development cooperation, such as on the F-15I jet, and the THEL laser defense system. Meanwhile, Lebanon bargains with the US over petty quantities of M16s. Israel spends 9% of its GDP on defense. That amounts to over USD$10 billion per annum whereas we rarely exceed USD$0.5 billion. It is also blaringly obvious that Arabs are incapable of developing military alliances as nations so how do we plan to defend Lebanon from an invading aggressor alone?

Israel has compulsory national military service for all its minority groups. Most are glad to participate in protecting their homeland. How do Lebanese-Armenians help defend Anjar and the southeast? Why is it that the Armenian presence in parliament far exceeds their representation in the defense force? This is not an attack on Lebanon’s Armenian community, but simply a typical example regularly seen across the board.

Can their not be a specific battalion that the local communities can trust and support and can be made entirely of its ethnic population? Can Lebanon’s Hezbollah supporters not defend their south if they are being asked to by a Lebanese Military Commander In Chief rather than a Hezbollah figurehead? Why do we not construct an LAF managed border police structure where former Hezbollah militants and their stores are integrated into the LAF and armed by the LAF where they may be responsible for security in heavy urban areas such as the boundaries of the notorious Ain El-Hilweh? Or will that simply ease the flow of illegal weapons into our refugee camps? Why does the country think I’m insane at the last proposition, or does our distrust of our fellow citizens make us dismiss such ideas? Why is it that we are so detracted to bring such matters out into the open?

Israel has a structure where overseas volunteers, young, Non-Israeli Jews, who can be trained in combat units. There are over 15 million Lebanese dispersed world-wide, many also unemployed and very willing. Hypothetically speaking, will Lebanon’s new defense strategy devise plans to train those that are willing to contribute in times of need?

More recently, a promise has been made by the new US cabinet to supply Raven Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to patrol our borders. Is that our country’s Early Warning System? Who and what will those crafts be monitoring exactly? What is it that UNIFIL do then? Who will be the first to shoot down those UAVs, I wonder? Here’s an idea! Wouldn’t we provide a better a service to the population if we developed more effective means to defend our power plants? We all know where Israel aims first when targeting Lebanon’s infrastructure. Or have we learnt nothing from the last 30 years?

I won’t even begin to compare military arsenal as Israel may possess close to 400 nuclear warheads. I do not write this article in aim of humiliating my own. But how do we defend ourselves without contemplating the bare facts. Our military structure and the politics surrounding it are pre-Napoleonic. Much needs doing before flaunting the idea of defending our borders militarily. I am sure that our “Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty” to our Lebanon is true. It is true however in everyone’s unique ways. Stripping Hezbollah of their artillery is another topic for another day. For now however, we are far from creating a united defense structure that truly exists to defend Lebanon’s borders, integrity, and its people as a whole. One thing is for sure, buying random military hardware without a national objective does not comprise a defense strategy.