Incorporating raidcal Islam into the army is never a good idea

Last week, Hezbollah and Lebanese officials rejected UN call to disarm the organization and have it join the Lebanese army for a unified Lebanon. What shocked me about this wasn't that Hezbollah rejected the call; but that somebody in the UN actually thought that incorporting radical Islam into the official army of Lebanon is a good idea!

I understand the UN's desire to suggest such a move; they want to avoid bloodshed as much as possible. However putting Hezbollah in the army is not the way. To be certain, in almost all the times when a radical ideology was incorporated into the army, it ended up with a coup that started with the radical groups taking over, trying to impose their will. In Lebanon's case this will end up with a massacre; let alone a war with Israel. With 14 different factions having their different needs, giving Hezbollah the strength to impose its ideology on the others will lead to detonation of the long disputes in the country that date back to 1975. If the UN really wants to prevent all this, it must insist on disarming Hezbollah completely; giving any future unified Lebanese government the chance to truly be the sole representative of the people, for the people.

tags:
Israel, Middle East, Lebanon, Hezbollah, UN