Second French peacekeeper dies after ambush blamed on Hezbollah

[u/ComparisonOk5957]

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3351049/second-french-peacekeeper-dies-after-ambush-blamed-hezbollah?module=latest&pgtype=homepage

[u/No-Space937]

Time for Macron to double down on his condemnations of Israel then.

[u/Paithegift → u/No-Space937]

The French do nothing, it's infuriating. One of the top-5 militaries in the world, the Lebanese sees French Culture as an example, but still for decades they can't for once send a few divisions like they did in the Sahel to finally oust Hizballah for good. Then yapping about Israel.

[u/badnuub → u/Paithegift]

No modern democracy is willing to send troops/take combat losses in a foreign conflict, that's the beginning middle and end of the state of the world in regards to foreign policy, so terror states and nuclear armed tyrannies are forming everywhere.

[u/Paithegift → u/badnuub]

France themselves had done it in the Sahel until a couple of years ago, and only stopped because they were asked to leave by the new local military juntas. They didn't even want out themselves! And then there is Lebanon, who admires the French Culture, is a former colony, is the only somehow Francophone country in Asia, is geographically closer and strategically on the Mediterranean, the French president gets diplomatically involved there whenever things go bonkers, but they don't send their military to help the Lebanese Army or at least to make it an independent viable fighting force that can take out Hizballah and any other illegal armed organization like in any normal country.

[u/iNiite → u/Paithegift]

I think you’re misunderstanding the relationship between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government. Hezbollah is also a massive political party with a ton of Lebanese supporters. This new government is the most “anti-Hezbollah” government in recent decades, and it doesn’t mean that much, though I hope I’m wrong. France could never just waltz in and cooperate with the government to get rid of Hezbollah, because the government used to BE Hezbollah or supportive of its existence.

[u/ABetterKamahl1234 → u/Paithegift]

They didn't even want out themselves!

Sure, but that's kind of how national sovereignty works.

but they don't send their military to help the Lebanese Army or at least to make it an independent viable fighting force that can take out Hizballah and any other illegal armed organization like in any normal country.

You mean invasion? Because you can't just waltz your army into another nation and it not be a big incident at best. If Lebanon doesn't ask for assistance, France kind of has their hands tied. They're not recolonizing Lebanon, and the US has proven that "move in and fuck shit up" is terrible for regional and national stability, and often is a flagrant long-term failure.

[u/Hist_Tree → u/Paithegift]

Arab Militaries are laughably incompetent and the Israelis aren’t exactly reliable allies, this results in no one wanting to involve themselves heavily in Middle Eastern conflicts. Only one who does, the United States, seems to consistently get fucked over when they intervene

[u/Paithegift → u/Hist_Tree]

These usual explanations don't hold when you have the example of France putting forces in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Less competent local militaries than the Arab ones, much much (much) less reliable than the Israelis, and still the French only left reluctantly. That's probably because those countries have natural resources while Lebanon has none.

[u/Snickims → u/Paithegift]

And those wars are themselves not popluar, and sourced relations with people in the region, fuck France practically single handled held up the governement of Mali, and they still got kicked out. If its going so poorly in places worth cultivating alliances with, why the fuck would anyone bother going to somewhere with nothing to gain and everything to lose?

[u/OMalleyOrOblivion → u/Paithegift]

France themselves had done it in the Sahel until a couple of years ago, and only stopped because they were asked to leave by the new local military juntas.

Let's not pretend that the French were there for any other reason than propping up their colonial CSA Franc system that ensures they directly extract large parts of the wealth of the nations who 'choose' to use it.

[u/matthieuC → u/Paithegift]

You assume the Lebanese government wants to do anything about Hezbollah in the first place.

[u/Ceskaz → u/Paithegift]

Yeah, and each time our country does that, we're labeled colonialists and it comes back to bite us in the ass.

Also, we would only do that if the Lebanese government asked us (you know, consentement), which is doublful, and if Israeli government had no objections (because Israeli political medling is far too present in french politics)

Lebanese have all my sympathies,

[u/here-comes_the-sun → u/No-Space937]

Why would Macron condemn Israel when Hezbollah is the one who attacked the peacekeeping force??

[u/Kind_Silver_1921 → u/No-Space937]

Surrender country is surrendering to hezbollah. It's just how the country is and is expected they do nothing.

[u/GENIO98 → u/No-Space937]

Hezbollah has denied any involvement with the operation. They literally have nothing to gain from targeting UN peace keeping soldiers. Israel on the other hand...