Oh the regime change of a democratically elected government. So that's what the 'millions' for Lebanon were for.

We have seen this before, though. Any attempt to do regime-change will be reaaaally obvious for the world to see. Also Hezbollah (despite the 'terrorist organization' status designated to it by the USA and Israel) has seats in the Lebanese Parliament. This means that people voted for them. This also means that MOAR people will patriotically vote for them if they are seen as REAL defenders of Lebanon. So that's gunna backfire. Bigly. And there is nothing the USA can do in that case.

BTW: re: the UK Lawrence of Arabia myth (LOL he was a cross-dressing glowie trying to stir up some trouble because oil-fields, indluding capturing an ancient fort in the middle of the desert, that is now CENTCOM). His escapades were amplified by a looong Hollywood movie to make the twat into some sort of hero. This mythology only exarcerbated the desire to do soft-power and implement sneaky spy vs. spy ME policy.