Hezbollah Warns US Not to Set Up Base
"A senior Pentagon official said the U.S. military would like to see a "strategic partnership'' with Lebanon's army to strengthen the country's forces so that Hezbollah would have no excuse to bear arms.
Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, spoke on Lebanese television Thursday after holding talks on military cooperation with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
Hezbollah and Lebanon's opposition seized on Edelman's comments as subtle confirmation... that Washington was offering a treaty that provides for bases and training in the country.
Hezbollah has argued that Washington's attempts to boost military ties with Lebanon are a ploy for domination and could turn the country into another Iraq. Some in Lebanon have expressed fears that a foreign military presence in the country could attract al-Qaida and other militants.
[Like the Fatah al-Islams that the US sent in earlier?]
Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric accused the Bush administration of trying to force the Lebanese to choose between turning their country into an American military base or face new strife.
"The Lebanese, who have seen the American failure in Iraq ... must be aware that what the administration of President Bush is aiming at is something else other than supporting the Lebanese army,'' Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press."[Yeah, we all know the Clean Break/PNAC script he's reading from!]
