DAR AL HARB/ISLAM: DECONSTRUCTING HEZBOLLAH

Deconstructing Hezbollah
By Allen McDuffee

When George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13224 on Sept. 23, 2001, presenting a protocol to combat al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations of “global reach,” Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia organization, was not on the list, despite the fact that in 1997 the State Department had designated it a “foreign terrorist organization.” Two weeks later, under congressional and external pressure, the administration amended the order and Hezbollah was added. The administration’s initial omission indicates the complex nature of Hezbollah. How do you classify and develop policy toward an organization that has committed acts of terrorism in the past, that currently provides important social services such as health care, schools and financial services, that defends its country from occupation in the south, and that plays by the rules in official Lebanese national politics (and thereby exercises democratic principles in a region with a less than stellar democratic record)?

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Pertinent Links:

1) Deconstructing Hezbollah