US Policy in Lebanon is Flawed

By Joe F. Jabre, M.D.

US foreign policy in Lebanon has had three major flaws: It has attempted to solve the Lebanese crisis through the regional prism of Syrian and Israeli security interests. It has assigned great roles to minimal players and minimal roles to great players in Lebanon. It has underestimated the level of popularity and genuine support for General Michel Aoun's policies among the majority of the population in the eastern areas and a sizeable proportion of the population in the areas under Syrian occupation.

The US has attempted to engineer a solution to the Lebanese crisis by looking at it as an outcome of some sort of security arrangement which can be worked out between Syria and Israel. To make things worse, the US has dealt very timidly with Syria, yielding to most if not all of the demands of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. With the Israelis, this policy has had the effect of mortgaging the solution of the Lebanese problem to the future of the West Bank and the intifada, something Israel is not keen to talk about at present.

The US has assigned great roles in Lebanon to minimal players both in east and west Beirut who, although dedicated Lebanese, have neither the will nor the influence to carry out any of the great tasks assigned to them. These players include, but are not limited to, the Christian Deputies of the eastern regions, the Muslim Deputies of the western regions and politicians such as former Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss. Key players such as General Aoun, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Shili leader Nabih Berri, not to mention Hezbollah, have been kept almost completely out of the picture.

The US has truly underestimated the level of popularity and support for General Aoun's policies, universally adhered to in the eastern regions and greatly supported in the western regions. Indeed, conservative estimates put those who have turned out to demonstrate in support of General Aoun at 250,000, out of a total population of 1 million people in the eastern regions. The US persists in writing off these demonstrations by 25 percent of thetotal population as misleading or even manipulated and persists in calling General Aoun a renegade"

The US should approach the Lebanese problem through a genuine Lebanese, not Syrian or Israeli, perspective. This will gain the respect of all the Lebanese parties involved, reduce Syria to its real, not implied, strategic importance on the ground, and put the Israeli-Palestinian problem in its real perspective.

The US also should stop dealing with minimal players in the Lebanese arena and work with the players who control either territory, political ideology or genuine popular support. These players can recommend and, more importantly, impose changes implemented on the ground.

Finally, the US must recognize General Michel Aoun for the true patriot, and now folk hero, that he has become. It should address honestly the issues he raises and recognize the legitimate need of Lebanese of all creeds for a truly sovereign and independent state within internationally recognized borders.

Dr. Joe F. Jabre, associate professor of neurology at Boston University, is president of the American Lebanese League, which was founded in 1976 and maintains ties with Lebanon's Maronite Christian community.