Pager attack in Lebanon was terrorism. And Americans helped pay for it.

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Pager ******* in Lebanon was terrorism. And Americans helped pay for it.

This story was updated to add new information.

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by something the world has never seen before ‒ a

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remotely detonated.

Tiny ****** inside pagers and walkie-talkies went off as the devices’ users were in homes, supermarkets, buses and on the streets.

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and thousands wounded in two waves of attacks this week. Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group that uses the nation as a base for its militants, both

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. ******* has not claimed responsibility for the attacks directly, but anyone who pays attention to the Middle East understands that this operation almost certainly originated in Tel Aviv.

On Friday, *******

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that reportedly *******

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in Beirut. ******** officials said Hezbollah later fired dozens of rockets into northern *******.

War has always involved sabotage. But

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 of sabotaging pagers is highly questionable. As is its wisdom.

When you turn pagers into ******, you have to know that there will be a high risk of collateral damage. The pagers belonged not just to military members of Hezbollah, but also medical staff and others.

As an *********, I support ******* with my tax dollarsdata:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==

An image of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen during the ******** of a Hezbollah member in Kfar Melki, Lebanon, on Sept. 19, 2024, after handheld pagers and walkie-talkies detonated.

In the past, when ******* targeted specific cellphone users, including ******** a

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, it seemed like a much better way to respond to terrorism − with minimal risk of collateral civilian deaths, as compared with, say, a missile strike on an apartment.This time, an entire nation, Lebanon, has been terrorized. Its medical facilities are straining to handle all the ***** victims. Some in Lebanon are comparing the feeling of insecurity to the awful aftermath of the

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.Hezbollah is helping ******, and both groups ***** ******** civilians without mercy or regret. They ***** ******** children when they can. I have no illusions about their methods. But I don’t financially and politically support ****** or Hezbollah.

As an *********, I financially support ******* with my tax dollars. If they are murdering Lebanese children, then to some extent, I did that.

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And how, exactly, is this helping *******? Is there a chance Hezbollah goes, “Well, we didn’t realize how dangerous ******* was, let’s negotiate.” The cyber ******* has shaken the hornets’ nest and ******* a few terrorists, that’s all.

Sure, Hezbollah’s ability to communicate internally has been gravely damaged, at least momentarily. But this tactic is spurring anger at ******* across all sectors of Lebanese society, and indeed, the ***** world. Iraq is

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to Lebanon; Egypt is expressing solidarity.

Will it be ******* or easier for Hezbollah to get recruits? The pager and walkie-talkie explosions ******* and wounded a few fighters, but there will be three or four replacements for each one who fell.

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.

Hezbollah has always been a terrible challenge for *******. It’s a non-state actor, with a military force far stronger than Lebanon’s national army. A few years ago, I asked a Lebanese government minister how a ****** between Hezbollah and the Lebanese military would go, and he predicted that Hezbollah would win in a week.

Hezbollah also is funded by Iran, and gets more sophisticated weaponry every year. Compared with ******, Hezbollah has always been far more potent as a military force.

Attacks may hurt ******* in the long term

The long-term hope for ******* in its relationship with Lebanon has to be that Hezbollah is eventually brought under control of the political authorities in Beirut, and that a coalition of Sunni, Druze, ********** and moderate Shiite leaders makes peace with *******.

That is the dream, but also the only realistic way the conflict between Hezbollah and ******* ends well.

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The cyber ******* just pushed that day off by years. Is a massive sabotage of devices as bad as a ****** bus ********, which indiscriminately ******* Israelis? No, but ******* should remember what happened when bus bombings left body parts all over the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The attacks devastated the ******** left, the side that had been working for peace and even a two-state solution. They unified the nation around ******* policies against Palestinians.

They strengthened *******’s will to ******.

That’s what’s happening in Lebanon, as even Hezbollah’s fiercest opponents are now rallying to their support.

It also will inevitably cause more and more Americans to wonder if we should be such strong supporters of a nation that uses tactics that terrorize an entire country and inevitably leave behind ***** and wounded children.

Jeremy Mayer is an associate professor in the 

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 at George Mason University, where he also directs the master’s and Ph.D. programs in political science.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:

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#Pager #******* #Lebanon #terrorism #Americans #helped #pay

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