Pro-Syrian PM Reinstated in Lebanon

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Sherry Darling

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PING Neo-cons: Spreading democracy ain't as simply as an election or ordering troops out because We Said So (especially since we ourselves we so recently occupying a country "for it's own good", some would say we still are....). For the past few weeks, we've heard a lot of giving credit to Bush for all of this--what now?

Anyway, I was excited as anyone by the (abortive?) "Cedar Revolution". Here's hoping the people of Lebanon will be heard--that might well still happen. But it's never so simply as Wolfowitz and Co think it is.

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/10/politics/10diplo.html


*sigh*

SD
 
Ergh--my server exploded on me. LOL. If a mod could kindly delete double postage :wink:

Look forward to hearing what FYMers think of this!

Cheryl
 
I doubt anyone thought Syria and Hezbollah would roll over and let the people of Lebanon retake control of their country.

The fact that they had anti-Syria demonstrations shows the potential for the region.




Besides, you always need three countries in an "Axis of Evil". I guess its now Iran, North Korea and Syria.
 
Rhetoric aside, it has been said that the greatest opponents to Syrian occupation have been the minority Christian population. So was the media reflecting the minority or the majority of Lebanon when it showed those original protests demanding Syria leave? I really don't expect the media to tell the full truth anymore.

Melon
 
melon said:
Rhetoric aside, it has been said that the greatest opponents to Syrian occupation have been the minority Christian population. So was the media reflecting the minority or the majority of Lebanon when it showed those original protests demanding Syria leave? I really don't expect the media to tell the full truth anymore.

Melon

i've read that protests in favor of hezbollah and syria were far greater than anti-syrian ones. one report said that roughly 500,000 people were rallying in rupport of syrian troops.
 
I read that Hezbollah bused in many people to fill it's ranks at the rally, as in it was staged, there were also threats made. Make no mistake Syria will not give Lebanon up without a fight and with the international community united against the Syrian occupation it will end.

True neocons don't count their chickens till their hatched, if you read the latest Daniel Pipes article then you would realize this.
 
a friend of mine who will be going to europe with me will also be going to lebanon this summer right after the trip, i can only hope for his and his family's sake that the situation will look better by july.
 
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Hi!

The whole "Middle East" is a very complex scenario that changes constantly. It will be interesting to see where it all eventually ends.......

carol
wizard2c
:|
 
I knew there was going to be a massive problem pretty damn soon, it was just going too well to be the Middle East. My pessimism seems in some ways to be right, as much as I hate it. Damn. :mad: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored:
 
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melon said:
Rhetoric aside, it has been said that the greatest opponents to Syrian occupation have been the minority Christian population. So was the media reflecting the minority or the majority of Lebanon when it showed those original protests demanding Syria leave? Melon

Definitely the minority. The 'anti-Syrian' protesters were overwhelmingly Maronite Christians, who comprise roughly a third of the population (there are some other, smaller Christian sects too), and whose over-representation in government was a major precipitating cause of the Lebanese civil war in the first place. (That, and a destabilizing influx of Palestinian refugees following Israel's seizure of the West Bank in the 1967 war.)

It was the civil war that got Syria involved in Lebanon to begin with, and the Lebanese have lived under an uneasy truce presided over by a puppet government ever since. All the various factions (Christians, Druze, Shia, Sunni, etc.) still maintain their own militias, which are held in check by little else besides Syrian power--so the risks posed by sudden, drastic political change are great.

Associated Press estimated the 'pro-Syria' protests at about 500,000 and the 'anti-Syria' protests at about 70,000. Even if you're assuming some of that 'pro-Syria' participation was less than spontaneous (as you safely can; fair enough), still, that's far too great a difference to be dismissed as the last gasp of a dying authoritarian order.

To complicate matters further, Hezbollah--like many other militant Islamist groups--maintains extensive social service and charity networks, in a region where government-sponsored 'safety nets' are, at best, woefully inadequate. It's wishful thinking to believe the loyalty they enjoy rests solely on fear.
 
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