Easy to forget because it was almost a quarter of a century ago now but southern Lebanon was occupied by the Israelis for two decades and it was Hezbollah that reaped the majority of the credit for their withdrawal and not the Lebanese army. State does not want it to be so cut and cry next time.

I get why it happens but it's kind of wild that we all consider Hezbollah as separate from the Lebanese government. They're a functional political party! They hold seats in the parliament!

feels strange to me that there was so much "actually a ton of lebanon will unite in rejecting hezbollah, they want this" when, if you're an american old enough to remember 9/11, you remember how there was "actually we need to come together with the republicans we hate and defend ourselves"