Why America Wants Hezbollah Beaten Even More Than Israel Does

• The Hezbollah model represents the nightmarish metamorphosis of a well-supplied and trained militia. If it can work in Lebanon, the model can be emulated elsewhere around the globe to other failed or semi-failed states. All you need is an external patron willing to invest resources just as Iran has in this case, and a supportive population base.



• The Hezbollah model completely emasculates the notion that a state is defined by, among other things, a monopoly over the means of violence.



• Hezbollah extends Iran's reach well beyond the immediate region and the Middle East, but also to far-flung places such as South America. Any outcome that does not end up with Hezbollah's disarmament is another step in the institutionalization of the model under Iranian tutelage.



• The U.S. as the sole superpower, which for better or worse also acts as the world's first responder, cannot afford to see the proliferation of Hezbollah-like organizations deciding the fate of nations.