Maj. W. Thomas Smith Jr.

With the exception of the Jihadi terrorist attacks in India, the most recent heartbreakingly predictable development in our ongoing war against Islamist terror is the West’s loss of the Lebanese front: A loss we’ve seen coming for months, despite the fact that a majority of the Lebanese people want freedom in that country.

The West’s loss was capped this week by the signing of a five-year defense pact between Lebanon and Iran, which will – among other yet to be disclosed particulars – supply Lebanon with weapons.

Iran already funds the Lebanese-based Shia terrorist group, Hizballah, with an estimated one-billion dollars annually. And Hizballah – which our own Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff says “makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team” – turned its illegal (according to UN mandate) weapons on the Lebanese state in May 2008.

Hizballah, which rules a radical Shia kingdom inside the sovereign state of Lebanon (similar to how the Taliban is set-up in Afghanistan), has gained tremendous power and political leverage since May.

Lebanese Pres. Michel Sleiman – who I warned for over a year was pro-Syrian, pro-Hizballah, now we see pro-Iranian (I know this man, spent time with him, his intelligence chief, and many of his top generals in Lebanon) – has sold his country, and completely duped America and the West.

For Heaven’s sake, we still continue to send $ millions in military aid to Lebanon’s armed forces and national police.

Our own government praised the insane May 2008 Qatar deal that rewarded Hizballah for its attacks against the Lebanese government and citizenry.

Sleiman – then commander-in-chief of an army which he refused to commit against Hizballah – was dubbed president thanks to the Qatar deal (and the U.S. government oddly praised that dubbing).

Iran and Hizballah continue to undermine our efforts and their coordinated efforts have killed untold numbers of American and British soldiers in Iraq.

Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to salivate over the prospect of “a world minus America.”

Now Sleiman and Ahmadinejad have signed a defense pact.

Yet we are praising and supporting Sleiman? We are sending his army cash?

Folks, this is not rocket science (pardon the cliché). Something is seriously broken in terms of our foreign policy and our ability to prosecute the war on terror. We are in denial about our enemy and his motivations, and he is coming after us … and making gains everyday.

— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.  28 Nov 2008