When Hajj was killed two months later, many Middle East experts said his assassination was a coordinated strike by Syrian agents, Hezbollah, and Fatah al Islam, all hoping to strip the army of its fighting spirit, particularly after the victory at Nahr al-Bared.

That’s also one of the goals today.

Hezbollah and its Iranian-Syrian overlords obviously planned for the rioting to:

a) Place the Lebanese Army in an impossible, untenable position.

b) Test the leadership of Hezbollah and its ability to mobilize and direct forces.

c) Force the LA’s hand, and make the LA’s combatants appear heavy-handed.

d) Push the LA to defend itself both in street fighting and eventually in the courtroom.

e) Force Sleiman to choose between a chance at the presidency and his loyalty to the LA in the aftermath of the clashes.

f) Demoralize and weaken the LA in the process. For the terrorists, the arrest of the LA 11 was just icing on the cake.

According to one government official: “This reinforces the fact that if the UN does nothing to put a stop to this – if they do not intervene with military force under ‘Chapter VII [of the UN Charter]’ – for the sake of Lebanon’s sovereignty and the safety of the Lebanese people, Hezbollah will become the Taliban of Lebanon. The Lebanese Army cannot compete with the Iranian money pouring into Hezbollah’s accounts, and it cannot adequately defend the country when its soldiers are forced to choose between either defending themselves and the civilian population on the streets in riotous combat against a terrorist militia, or defending themselves in courtroom battles proffered by those same terrorists who attack Lebanon’s soldiers over rules-of-engagement, while those same soldiers are thrown to the curb by their senior commander.”

Though it has not been widely reported, limited attacks also have been launched against Lebanese Army posts in recent days.