It's a story that has happened before in the Middle East: an army with American weapons shot at another army with American weapons. Sometimes it's an intentional ploy; during the war between Iran and Iraq, the Reagan administration armed both sides, leading to the Iran-Contra scandal. And sometimes it's an unintended consequence, like the Syrian rebel infighting that led to the infamous headline, "In Syria, militias armed by the Pentagon fight those armed by the CIA."
The fighting between the U.S.-funded army of Israel and the U.S.-funded army of Lebanon seems to be another such consequence of U.S. policy. When the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and Israel began fighting last year, the Lebanese government tried its best to stay out of the fray. It reportedly even pulled troops away from the border when Israel announced a ground invasion and ordered Lebanese citizens to evacuate north of the Awali River. But on Thursday, the Lebanese army announced that it had, in fact, been sucked into the conflict.
