Minute by minute

The Wall Street Journal has a page called Mideast Crisis Tracker that is, "Updated regularly with news on the Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon crisis." Excellent resource - no editorializing, just what has happened. Free to non-subscribers.

An entry from yesterday says this about the prospects of the Lebanese national army successfuly disarming Hezbollah.

Tuesday, Aug. 8

11:45 p.m.: With the U.N.pushing to disarm the militant group Hezbollah, the U.S. and other countries have expressed confidence that Lebanon's army can handle the job with help from a multinational force. But Lebanese commanders believe the task could prove difficult. Lebanon's military is poorly equipped and fragmented along ethnic and religious lines. Its police force has 20,000 members, but fewer than half have guns or ammunition. Some of the weapons they use are World War II-era rifles. Lebanon's army, the other branch of its security forces, currently numbers about 40,000. Some of its tanks were produced in the 1940s, say senior army officers. And American-made helicopters it has purchased are one-engine models that are no longer legal to fly in the U.S.