The strength of the armed forces lies within its junior-officer leadership, tough training for the special operations forces, and the fact that many of the old guard reservists have combat experience from the army and militias during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990).

The weakness of the armed forces lies in its lack of an air force, its religiously mixed army rank-and-file whose divided loyalties might splinter the force in a civil war, and its weak generalship: A corps of “yes men” as I described in a recent piece at National Review Online, many of whom are still taking orders from their Syrian overlords (despite the fact that Syria was kicked out by the United Nations more than two years ago) and they are justifying the existence of Hezbollah by referring to it as a legitimate “resistance” force.

The generals are excusing Hezbollah’s terrorist training, weapons acquisitions, and operational activities. The political leaders are deathly afraid of Hezbollah, which has set up an elections-defying “tent city” between the parliament and the government building. Politicians are being assassinated. Attempts have been made on the lives of Muslim clerics who oppose Hezbollah. Government and business leaders are on Hezbollah “death lists.” Anybody with a voice is under heavy security.

I’m only scratching the surface: I’ve not addressed the Palestinian refugee camp problem, smuggling, and border issues with Syria and Israel (The Lebanese army actually opened fire on Israeli jets that penetrated Lebanese airspace yesterday). Nor have I talked about the buck-passing between the generals and the politicians.

If there is any hope for Lebanon in this current national/international crisis, it may be found in a strong sense of nationalism within the Lebanese people – Christians, Muslims (those not loyal to Hezbollah), and Druze – all brave to a fault, and believing that Lebanon will ultimately achieve complete sovereignty and an incorruptible representative government of statesmen, not politicians.

I spoke with many of them – men and women, young and old, from all walks of life -- while traveling across Lebanon over the past several weeks. They stoically accept the fact that war will probably come and that their lives may get worse before things get better. They are ready to fight as they’ve done so many times in their recent history. But they wonder why it has taken so long for the American people to appreciate the global significance of Lebanon. “Only now [after 9/11] are you interested,” they say.