Hezbollah’s Resistance™ against resistance

When Hezbollah started sending its men to Syria in 2011, the revolution against the Assad regime was still producing extraordinary momentum. The rest, as they sadly say, is history. At the time of writing, the Assad regime, backed by Russia, Iran and (mostly Iranian-backed) paramilitary forces, has retaken large parts of Syria. A Pyrrhic victory that has left behind sieges, destruction and the slow, torturous, subterranean dungeons that have made this such a notorious regime, even by the region’s abysmal standards.

In 2011, with stories being passed from Syrian mouths to Lebanese ears, Hezbollah initially denied the rumours of its presence in Syria. It would only confirm them in May 2013, although its first battle was against the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Qusayr, on the Lebanese border, between February and April 2012. The resulting FSA victory was overturned a year later between April and June 2013 when the Assad regime and Hezbollah launched a counter-offensive.

I still remember how news of Hezbollah’s military intervention was being reported by Syrian — and some Lebanese and Palestinian — activists in Lebanon. It was a mixture of uncertainty and shock. It was difficult to believe that the group that sacrificed so much against the Israeli state was now sending its men to die in defence of the Syrian state. So deep was the shock that it lead…