The Lebanese Army is inadvertently creating an extremist incubator

Being a foot soldier in the Lebanese Armed Forces surely ranks high on the list of unenviable professions. Aside from trying to maintain calm along the country's perennially hot borders with both Israel and Syria, the Lebanese army has been repeatedly targeted by suicide bombers from radical Sunni groups over the past year.

But the job is not thankless. After winning a five-day battle against Islamist fighters in the Lebanese town of Arsal, the army has enjoyed massive public support. Since the early August clashes, flags bearing the armed forces insignia have appeared in window displays and on car decals across the country. Rivaling politicians repeat pro-army mantras at public appearances and nightly talk shows.

At a time when political divisions in the country run so deep that Parliament has been unable to elect a president for months, there is a real — and perhaps not unfounded — sense that the army is the only thing keeping Lebanon together during this precarious time. But there is also a darker side to this hawkish pride. In their efforts to protect Lebanon from the very real threat of terrorism, the Lebanese Army is actually contributing to the radicalization of some Syrian refugees.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Whether you live in the U.S. or in Lebanon, chances are you haven't heard about this story because the Lebanese media have been observing an effective blackout on any negative coverage of the LAF since August. Anyone who raises questions about the army's tactics, particularly its use of force against Syrian refugees, is silenced. After posting a tweet criticizing the army, Al Jazeera TV host Faisal al-Qassem was sued for slander by a group of Lebanese lawyers, and the network's Beirut offices were stormed by dozens of pro-army civilian protesters.

Important stories are not being told. One is that the seemingly ironclad public support for the army may be eroding. While the army has focused on staunching Sunni extremism, the Shiite militia and political party Hezbollah has received a tacit blessing from the authorities. Despite Lebanon's official policy of dissociation from the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah fighters cross the border and battle alongside Bashar Assad with impunity. The LAF is either unable or unwilling (or both) to stop them.

Perceiving a double standard, some Sunnis (both Lebanese and Syrian) have stepped up anti-army rhetoric. Last week at least two LAF positions in North Lebanon were attacked. At army checkpoints, boy-faced soldiers scan cars for bombs with fear in their eyes.

While its almost impossible to fathom the conditions brave members of the LAF face every day, it is unacceptable and unwise for the army to apply prejudicial policies.

Another story is that of LAF's questionable and decidedly heavy-handed methods to maintain security in Lebanon.

Since members of ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra emerged from the badlands and Syrian refugee camps surrounding the remote town of Arsal in August, the LAF has been trying to purge the area of militants and rescue more than 20 servicemen still held captive by the groups.

Mass arrests of Syrian boys and men, from ages 15 to 60, have gone largely unreported in the Lebanese press. Hundreds of men have been summarily rounded up in refugee camps and taken in for questioning. Several have reported being severely beaten while in custody.

A young Syrian refugee, just 12-years-old, told me how he was taken from the streets of Aral and beaten in a shack by uniformed members of the army. He was only freed when an elderly Lebanese man happened to hear his screams and chastised the soldiers for beating a helpless boy.

A 20-year-old man who was arrested at an army checkpoint said 10 soldiers beat him before he was released without charge.

Others reported that the Lebanese army had use tanks to steamroll vehicles and property belonging to refugees during recent raids.

There is no question that Lebanon faces a dire security situation compounded by the presence of 1.5 million Syrian refugees in the country, who now comprise more than 20 percent of the population.

Lebanon's abject failure to manage the refugee crisis has contributed to heightened security concerns. As there are no official camps for refugees in Lebanon, Syrians are scattered in rented homes and haphazard tented settlements across the country. In this chaotic landscape it has become difficult for the army to distinguish between innocent refugees and fighters.

Still, the army's harsh tactics are shortsighted, unproductive, and dangerous. Several Syrian refugees in the town of Arsal told me that after facing "humiliation" at the hands of the Lebanese army, many young men are turning towards Islamist groups operating in the area, including ISIS and Jabat al Nusra.

Young men, one refugee explained, would rather "die an honorable death" fighting alongside the Islamists than suffer indignity at the hands of the Lebanese army.

A commander of the Free Syrian army based in Arsal told me that he had recently seen his cousin, bloody and beaten, in a video circulating online. The cousin had been detained and later released by the army several days prior.

"He had nothing to do with ISIS," the commander told me. "But he will now."

Editor's note: The author is a Beirut-based journalist who, due to security concerns, prefers to be identified with initials.

Sign up to get The Weekly Wonk, New America's digital magazine, delivered to your inbox each Thursday here.

More from The Weekly Wonk...

• Syrian women know how to defeat ISIS
• The euro-apprentice
• The Kobani domino effect