What's needed in Lebanon
Hehir, J. Bryan
p RESIDENT Reagan came to office committed to reverse the "Vietnam syndrome" in foreign policy; but in the last week of 1983 the president was confronted by a version of the syndrome from...
...Policy-makers seem little impressed by the intricacies of regional politics and faith and mesmerized by the geopolitical meaning of the Middle East...
...supplies both political and psychological support through it...
...Those who fear the agreement is a U.S...
...policy in the Middle East and set limits on Israel's plans for the region...
...Present policy is preeminently a military presence which is increasingly difficult to explain and exceedingly dangerous to maintain...
...The Long Commission said such a perception also transformed the Arab view of the role of the Marines in Beirut, from peacekeepers to partisans explicitly on the side of Mr...
...Faced with this perception the United States must define its areas of common interest with Arab states and demonstrate that its policy is cast in terms of some convergence with Arab objectives in the region...
...The function of an alliance is to make explicit and formal a pre-existing mutuality of interest among nations...
...In the Middle East, U.S...
...and Israeli interests converge but they are not congruent...
...choices in Lebanon are direct and decisive...
...To follow the solid advice of the Long Commission by stressing the diplomatic option requires thinking through U.S...
...The U.S...
...At one point recently the president explained both his Lebanon and Grenada policies by a single sentence about resisting the Soviet Union...
...It exemplifies the fusion of religious and political forces which combine to give the Middle East a uniquely volatile character...
...The president preempted both the Pentagon report and a similar assessment from the House of Representatives by assuming personal responsibility for failures in command...
...In addition, eight years of civil strife have drawn into Lebanon all the major actors in the larger Mideast drama: Israel and Syria now occupy significant parts of Lebanon, and the Palestinians' saga has permeated the years of war -they came, they almost established a parallel state within the Lebanese society, and now they have been expelled for the second time...
...It came not from the political left but from the Pentagon...
...Ironically, the charge these military professionals laid at the administration's door was an overemphasis on military measures and a failure to use diplomatic means more creatively in pursuing U.S...
...Gemayel and, implicitly, of Israel...
...Since the U.S...
...it should then press those areas where "accord" does not exist: settlements on the West Bank, the Palestinian question, and Israel's role in Lebanon...
...The Arab reaction to the strategic accord with Israel and to the Lebanese-Israel agreement of last May was generated by a view that the U.S...
...objectives in Lebanon...
...What needs more discussion is the price of the agreement for both sides...
...The policy debate must reach beyond Lebanon to the issues of U.S...
...Church/world watch What's needed in Lebanon J. Bryan Hehir The Long COmmission's stress on diplomatic means to address the Lebanese problem is undoubtedly correct, but decidedly at odds with present policy...
...The links between the larger questions and U.S...
...is objectively committed to the existence and welfare of Israel, formalizing that commitment simply clarifies the situation...
...with Israel) in theMiddle East...
...This is the closest the U.S...
...The U.S.-Israel relationship reached a new and decisive stage in late November when President Reagan and Prime Minister Shamir announced an agreement on "strategic cooperation...
...but in the last week of 1983 the president was confronted by a version of the syndrome from an unexpected source...
...policy in the region piece by piece...
...The geopolitical concern may fit better in the Middle East than in Central America, but it fails to explain either...
...policy in the Middle East, for Lebanon today is a microcosm of the region...
...But the key questions went beyond those of personal responsibility to the very foundations of the policy...
...Ironically enough, the strategic agreement could be used to clarify U.S...
...This means Lebanon is not ,primarily a test of military will power (Continued on page 62) 27 January 1984:41...
...In the voice of the commission one could hear the echo of Vietnam...
...The U.S.-Arab relationship is also one of a convergence but not a congruence of interest...
...had defined its interests unilaterally (i.e...
...A Defense Department Commission of Inquiry ("The Long Commission"), composed principally of active and retired military officers, faulted the military chain of command for the October 23 attack on the marines in Beirut, but its strongest criticism was a surprisingly severe indictment of administration policy in Lebanon...
...The strategic cooperation agreement should be used to define how far the common interest extends and to indicate where it stops...
...If Lebanon cannot be "resolved" apart from a regional diplomatic initiative, then such a joint resolution must now be formulated anew...
...The military establishment was sending an early warning that it did not want to be saddled with another assignment doomed from the outset to frustration and failure...
...and Israel have come to a formal alliance and it provoked substantial opposition in the Arab world...
...blank check for Israel should be the first to press the question of the limits of the accord and the tradeoffs to be expected from it...
...The president's peace proposals of September 1982 were a useful beginning, but they are precisely the diplomatic measures which have been pushed aside by the Lebanon policy...
Vol. 111 • January 1984 • No. 2
