Congress Withholds Aid Following Lebanese Ambush--Obama Not On Board (Update: Lebanon Responds)

Hopefully, this will send a message to Lebanon:

U.S. lawmakers said on Monday they were blocking U.S. funding for Lebanon's military after a deadly border clash last week between Lebanon and Israel.

Two key Democrats, Representatives Nita Lowey and Howard Berman, announced they were holding up $100 million that has been approved for Lebanon's army but not yet spent. A senior House Republican, Eric Cantor, said future funding should be stopped too, pending an inquiry.

That's as far as Congress is concerned--the White House, however, is not on board with this:

The State Department said the Obama administration was not planning to re-evaluate its military cooperation with Lebanon. Spokesman P.J. Crowley said officials were not aware of any U.S. equipment being used during the incident.

U.S. military cooperation program with Lebanon "is in the interest of both of our countries and regional stability as a whole," Crowley said. The United States has provided more than $720 million in aid to the Lebanese army since 2006.

This is not surprising, seeing as how back in May, a White House official publicly said that the U.S. wants to build up Hezbollah Moderates--a neat trick, considering first that Hezbollah is recognized as a terrorist organization by the US and therefore the US cannot communicate with them, and secondly: the US cannot deal with Hezbollah moderates because....oh yeah, there aren't any moderate Hezbollah terrorists.

Two other points vis-a-vis Spokesman Crowley:
First, the claim that Lebanon used American weapons to attack Israel is more than just a rumor and furthermore that photos confirm Lebanon used American weapons to attack Israel.
Secondly, considering how sure the US was that Hezbollah wouldn't get its hands on any of the $720 million it gave to the Lebanese army, it really should not be surprising that the US has given over $400 to Gaza.

After all, one terrorist organization is as trustworthy as another.
Funny that in neither case did the US make the money conditional on the release of kidnapped Israeli soldiers.

UPDATE: Lebanon responds--hey, that's no way to treat a friend!

An adviser to the Lebanese prime minister said Tuesday that the suspension of $100 million in US aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces was unwarranted, and weakens the nation's effort to build the country's army.

Mohamed Chatah, an adviser to Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri, said Tuesday that the Lebanese forces are reliable. He said any "friend of Lebanon" should not take steps that would hurt efforts to build up the army.

The fact remains that Lebanon knew in advance what Israel was going to do and a Lebanese sniper killed an Israeli commander who was not near the cutting of the tree.

Let the Lebanese sweat.

Technorati Tag: Lebanese Ambush.