In Lebanon, The U.S. Blob Is Eyeing A Tired, Failed Strategy

U.S.-trained forces disappointed in Vietnam in the 1970s and in Iraq in the 2000s. In the Sahel, U.S. partners, armed with U.S. weapons and military know-how, have led successful military coups. Even in Ukraine, once seen as a security assistance success story, questions have emerged about the relevance and contributions of U.S.-provided training.

Unchastened by its past failures, however, the United States is ready to try again, this time in Lebanon. There’s still time to abandon this proposal, however, and Washington should. Not only is the U.S. military consistently ineffective at training partner security forces, but taking on such an expensive and time-consuming project in Lebanon would not advance U.S. strategic interests and could do more harm than good for Lebanon’s long-term stability.

To avoid these high costs and risks for Washington and Beirut, the United States should stay out of Lebanon’s security future.

The U.S. military has many strengths but building foreign militaries is not one of them. The U.S. experience in Afghanistan is one of the most studied security assistance fiascos in recent history, but its mistakes are far from novel. Among many retrospective evaluations, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)’s 2023 report criticizes U.S. forces in Afghanistan for a range of errors, including “mirror imaging” that imposed U.S.-style military structure and tactics in a place where neither fit; reliance on advanced American military technology that Afghans could not operate without U.S. support; poorly trained U.S. advisors who rotated out before gaining the experience to make progress; and politically-driven timelines that led to unrealistic goals divorced from the situation on the ground.