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Why America Wants Hizballah Beaten Even More Than Israel Does
[bitterlemons-international.org/Daily Star-Lebanon] Henri J. Barkey - The Hizballah model represents the nightmarish metamorphosis of a well-supplied and trained militia. If it can work in Lebanon, the model can be emulated elsewhere around the globe to other failed or semi-failed states. All you need is an external patron willing to invest resources just as Iran has in this case, and a supportive population base. The Hizballah model completely emasculates the notion that a state is defined by, among other things, a monopoly over the means of violence. Hizballah extends Iran's reach well beyond the immediate region and the Middle East, but also to far-flung places such as South America. Any outcome that does not end up with Hizballah's disarmament is another step in the institutionalization of the model under Iranian tutelage. The U.S. as the sole superpower, which for better or worse also acts as the world's first responder, cannot afford to see the proliferation of Hizballah-like organizations deciding the fate of nations. The writer is chair of the International Relations Department at Lehigh University and a former member of the State Department's policy planning staff.