Reason Writers Around Town

At the International Herald Tribune, Michael Young discusses the latest drive to end the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and what the U.S. could be doing toward that end.

This push is coming mainly from Walid Jumblatt, the Druze parliamentarian and political legacy who most recently made waves stateside by calling Paul Wolfowitz a "virus" and wishing the deputy secretary of defense had been killed in a Baghdad rocket attack. The U.S. revoked Jumblatt's visa over that comment, but as his current stance shows, he is a truly unpredictable character—nobody's flunky in a country where everybody's a flunky. Contrast his opposition to the Syrians with the dutiful comments of Hizbollah MP Mohammed Fneish, who (in an interview where he otherwise talked a good game about individual rights and limited government), says "At any rate, if you go today from North to South, you won't find any Syrian checkpoints in Lebanon." (In fairness, I should note that this is an accurate statement as far as it goes.) Other background: I wrote about the solidarity of French and American positions on the Syrian occoupation; Michael Young wrote about the fruitful divisions in Lebanon's media; and back before major combat operations in Iraq had been accomplished, I surveyed what the invasion of Iraq might do for self-determination in Lebanon.

Comments

[Viviane Karam]

How would you rate the interest of the American public in this Lebanese/Syrian affair? How much knowlege of it do you think exists out there?

[Douglas Fletcher]

Lebanese...those are the ones that put raisins and almonds in everything, right?

[drf]

"How would you rate the interest of the American public in this Lebanese/Syrian affair? How much knowlege of it do you think exists out there?"

equal parts: zero and zero.

just wait, however, until something happens there, then there will be all of these fucking "experts" crawling out of the woodwork...

🙂

[Alex]

Re: the comment by Douglas Fletcher. Impressive observation, Dougie...but the Lebanese are also the ones who created the oldest and most successful democracy, have a rich heritage and have been raped by Syria, Israel and the blind callousness of the internationl community over the years.

[David Ochami]

of course the US's interest in any matter outside its borders germinates from the motive of serving its own interest.
And in the case of Lebanon and the Middle East national interest incorporates Israel. No matter what the world, the UN and international opinion says the USA will never be even handed where Israel is concerned.
Only the very naive in this rhetoric about the need to have Syria out of Lebanon in compliance with UN resolutions and international especially when it comes from the US and Israel.
Everything else notwithstanding US opposition to Syria's presence in Lebanon is no evidence that the Bush administration loves Lebanese or is committed to their sovereignty more than the Syrians.
The duplicious nature of successive US regimes policies when it comes to Lebanon and other parts is once again evident in the latest US interest in Lebanon's freedom.

[John Otieno]

The American public is obviously misinformed on the need by their goevrnment to curtail Syria's involvement in Lebanon.
Because it has been marketed to them that Syria and other "outposts of tyranny" pursue interests that threaten US security, the American public naively supports foreign policy against Syria and other countries.
In the Lebanese affair, there is no evidence that the US loves Lebanon more than it hates Syria, or that it loves Lebanese more than the Syrians love them.
Syria is just another victim of George Bush' principle of preemption that purposefully aims to cripple constructive development in the Muslim world; one independent of the US/Israel.
US defence of the present system of globalisation and "world peace" is a selfish pursuit of its self-interests which imply the maintainance of the present internation system where America commands commerce and security and propaganda.
The lesson learnt in this matter, as was in Iraq, is that other races and peoples of the world, especially Arabs and Africans, should confront the enemy by all means necessary.

[Benson Amollo]

America by any virtue traceable in its history has never been objective in any matter and Lebanon, is therefore not an exception.

In America's pursuit and what its nationals appreciate as its Father role on all lives on the earth surface, Syria well qualifies as the weevil in the seed of the people of Lebanon, but wait until America makes its kill...

Syria is in the swerve to the periphery by America who before the eyes of the people of Lebanon wants to pass as a saint as it makes the best of the latest generation colonialist under the well protracted guiose of its covert machinery.

We know for obvious reasons that the scores the American government and people who sit at its helm like George Bush, seek to settle with the Muslim world goes beyond demonstration. It is against this that America's entry into the Lebanon world, speaks to the religious disadvantage of the Muslim world.

With his eyes set on Lebanon, ill as it is, Bush as to any belief is not resting his case;this is obvious in view of the fact that behind him lines up the American people, who for what they believe is their outlook of the world beyond their boundaries are never moved by the agonies facinbg other people-and especially the Muslim person.

America's greed in the current global order is also precipitated by the smart recoup that EU has undergone of late. This as it makes America weary of its clout on the 'weaker' world, provides nothing other than roughshod rides over others like Lebanon, where Syria must be sacrificed, not for any global good, but a justification of what is only visible to the American eye.