Hezbollah Continues To Be A Direct Threat To The US

I blogged last year about Hezbollah's illegal drug trafficking--not only in South American, but also in Mexico.

Now Hezbollah has the capabilities being a serious threat to US forces in the Middle East:

[Defense Secretary Robert] Gates pointed to the Mideast radical group Hezbollah, armed with more missiles and rockets than most states, possibly armed with chemical or biological warheads. Hezbollah cruise missiles could threaten U.S. ships with anti-ship missiles with a range of 65 miles.

One can argue that it is in the best interests of the US to keep out of the Middle East, and Obama has attempted to reduce the US military presence there, but the fact remains it is impossible to know when the US might find it advantageous to have troops there.

As Gates himself pointed out:

"Our record of predicting where we will use military force since Vietnam is perfect -- we have never once gotten it right," Gates said, answering questions after his speech. "There isn't a single instance: Grenada, Panama, the first Gulf War, the Balkans, Haiti, you can just keep going through the list, where we knew and planned for such a conflict six months in advance."

Also, keep in mind that the US and Hezbollah have a history:

• In April 1983, Hizbullah exploded a truck in front of the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon--killing 63 employees, including the Middle East CIA director. 120 were wounded.
• In October 1983, a Hizbullah suicide bomber blew up an American barracks in the Beirut airport, killing 241 U.S. Marines in their sleep and wounding another 81.
• In December, the American embassy in Kuwait was bombed.
• In March 1984, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, William Buckley, was kidnapped by Hizbullah and then murdered.
• Buckley was the fourth American to be kidnapped in Beirut, and many more suffered the same fate between 1982 and 1992 (though not all died or were killed in captivity).
• In September 1984, the U.S. embassy annex near Beirut was hit by yet another truck bomb (also traced to Hizbullah).
• In December 1984, a Kuwaiti airliner was hijacked and two American passengers employed by the U.S. Agency for International Development were murdered.
• The following June, Hizbullah operatives hijacked still another airliner, TWA flight 847. An American naval officer aboard the plane was shot, and his body was hurled onto the tarmac.
  
  [Condensed from World War IV: How It Started, What It Means, and Why We Have to Win, by Norman Podhoretz]

The US simply cannot afford to allow Hezbollah--and Iran which controls it--unfettered military expansion

Technorati Tag: Hezbollah and Iran.