The U.S. Foreign Policy towards Hezbollah. Research Paper

The U.S. Foreign Policy towards Hezbollah
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The U.S. Foreign Policy towards Hezbollah
Introduction
The Lebanese Hezbollah was founded over thirty years ago, in the early 1980s, and is one of the most powerful and considered dangerous rebel or terrorist groups in the Middle East. However, the Syrian civil war has transformed the group through undermining its position in Lebanon, therefore, altering its objectives within the region by tarnishing its name within the Middle East. Importantly, the group remains a major threat to the United States and Israel in particular. Apparently, Hezbollah is considered as having less interest in directly clashing with the United States. Despite the group’s close ties with Iran and the ever-increasing ideological opposition towards the U.S. role in the Middle East are factors worthy of consideration. Further, the group supports various local terrorist groups in Iraq, Syria as well as Palestine all of which provide direct opposition towards the U.S. interests within the Middle East. The Lebanese Hezbollah have thrived and survived numerous challenges from its authority and the very existence. The challenges have made Hezbollah rise as one of the strongest political and military organization within Lebanon. Hezbollah is known as a terrorist group but also does several other duties. These duties include being a social welfare agency, a quasi-state military, a part of the Lebanese government and also a political party (Ash, 2010).
The United States’ engagement with Hezbollah resulted from the ripple effect the emanated from Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 (Benson & Truman, 1997). The Israel objective was focused on defeating the PLO and ultimately secures its northern border from any form of a terrorist attack. In this case, the first portion of the objective was achievable as compared to the latter objective. Comparatively, the U.S. military efforts in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, proved successful from the initial stages in defeating the PLO, however, the Israeli military did not succeed in devising a solid exit strategy, therefore, counterproductively expanding their limited scope of the objective. This led the U.S. to enter Lebanon as part of an international force in an attempt to help in ending up the conflict. Unfortunately, in the month of April 1983 close to sixty-three people died following the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut which was later followed by the killing of 241 Marines bombed at Beirut barracks. However, most of the attacks took place before the intelligence units even discovered the new terrorist threat that existed (Goldman, 2015). Tactfully, Hezbollah was considered to be very effective since neither Israel nor the U.S. expected the group to use suicide bombings.
The U.S. Counterterrorism Policy on Hezbollah
Hezbollah underscored by their significant strikes against U.S. targets within Lebanon in the 1980s escalated the interest of the U.S. in defeating and eliminating the group (Naseer & Carroll, 1985). The group assisted several terrorist attacks against various U.S. bases abroad on a frequent basis. However, the hardest question stems from what defeating the group really entails. The fact of at...