The fruit of Olmert’s failure of nerve

A crowd estimated at 800,000 rallied in Beirut today in favor of the overthrow of the Saniora government. The rally is the latest evidence that, in the words of the Jerusalem Post, “[Hezbollah’s] strong resistance against Israel [has] sent its support among Shi’ites skyrocketing, emboldening it to grab more political power and make alliances with some Christians.” It’s also further evidence that Israel’s failure to employ the level of force needed to rout Hezbollah was a huge mistake.
With the Lebanese government under fire, I’m wondering how long it will be before it brings a substantial number of troops back from south Lebanon to provide for its own security. As a result of the settlement of the war with Israel, these troops are supposed to be monitoring Hezbollah in the south to help protect Israel, or something. I’m pretty sure they are useless for that purpose, so their re-deployment would probably be no great loss.