"Hezbollah is a very interesting organization," Brennan told a Washington conference, citing its evolution from "purely a terrorist organization" to a militia to an organization that now has members within the parliament and the cabinet.
"There is certainly the elements of Hezbollah that are truly a concern to us what they're doing. And what we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements," Brennan said.
He did not spell out how Washington hoped to promote "moderate elements" given that the organization is branded a "foreign terrorist organization" by the United States.
"We don't deal with them," he acknowledged.
So what's it going to be — dealing with them, or opposing them? How do you oppose someone and build parts of them up? Have we forgotten the Beirut bombing of 1983? Their repeated calls for the destruction of Israel? Their use of Katyusha rockets against Israel and their kidnapping of and slaughter of Israeli soldiers are recently as 2006? Those aren't the kinds of questions Brennan is talking about.