Bush does deserve some credit in Lebanon

[Cocoa]

I don't think Hezbollah could have achieved this scene without Bush sticking his ugly cowboy hatted head into their country.

Anti-US movements everywhere are begging Bush to intervene in their conflicts.

[realFedUp]

1. and Bin Laden did win

if you haven't realized that yet.

[ewagner]

2. He doesn't understand irony

but there's a lot of irony in the "I'm a uniter not a divider". comment. He's pretty much united the whole muslim world against us...

[drdtroit]

15. Pretty much the entire world, not just muslim. n/t

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Notice anything?

Notice how the growing Lebanese triumphalism seems to have banked a bit?

The above is a little reality check for the triumphalists.

[murray hill farm]

4. That crowd is amazing!

Wish it was like that in the USA...that freedom to demonstrate.

[Itsthetruth]

16. We Can Build Even Bigger Protests!

We did it before, just before the invasion of iraq with little or no help from the Democratic Party.

Perhaps the Democratic Party and progressive organizations should unite and organize mass protests against the war against Iraq or against any cuts in Social Security.

Think that will happen? If the Democratic Party won't build a mass movement that sure doesn't prevent all others from building mass protests and demonstrations on the big issues.

[Lone Pawn]

27. Not in the US. Not like that.

That's half a million if it's a thousand.

[Itsthetruth]

31. We've Had Bigger!

We had bigger anti-war demonstrations than that in New York and the Bay Area just before the invasion began. And nation-wide millions more participated. They were all local protests.

Progressive groups and individuals just need to unite and call them!

I bet the labor movement together with the AARP and progressive groups could easily get a million or more people to march on Washington to defend Social Security. Why don't they do that?

[illflem]

5. You mean to say

junior shouldn't get the Nobel Peace Prize?

Lebanon's instability dates to the 1920s, when the French split it off from Syria as a Christian enclave. The French formula gave the Lebanese Christian Maronites power over what soon became a larger Muslim majority. The consequences: on-and-off civil war and Syrian protectorate of Muslims. Lebanon is reminiscent of other colonial legacies in places like Rwanda, Vietnam, India, and Iraq, where Western powers played brutal ethnic games of divide and rule. The United States has tried to intervene in Lebanon before and each time got its fingers burned.

[indepat]

6. Did not someone say there can be no true democracy wherein occupied by

foreign troops, or something to that effect?

[Cocoa]

8. I hope you're not insinuating something about Iraq

for your information, our troops have been adopted as honorary Iraqis, and thus are not foreign.

The foreigners are the insurgents, whom we call "anti-Iraqi Forces" and who we keep saying are all "foreign fighters."

[indepat]

22. It gets complexier by the day and I'm so easily confused

[Bouncy Ball]

23. What?

Wait a second, Cocoa. Let me see if I am understanding you here: are you saying all the Iraqis are now happy about the US forces being there, to the point of being "adopted as honorary Iraqis?"

And no US troops are being shot at by Iraqis?

Somehow I seriously doubt that.

[Binka]

25. Bouncy Cocoa Is Being Cheeky

Sort of like the shit about rice and roses waiting for the US troops two years ago. We all know how that myth is going.....down the rabbit hole. US troops are being greeted with RPG's and road side bombs.

They must have run out of rice and roses.

[Bouncy Ball]

30. Oh sorry!

Whew!

[KharmaTrain]

7. He's Destablizing A Region

Bunnypants will go down with Richard The Lionhearted and Vlad The Impaler as one of the most notorious xtians in Islamic history. The growing resentment of him and this country in the Arab world is the quiet undercurrent you see in that picture above.

I love the wingnut talking head who claimed all these people were paid by Syria to show up. I guess he'd know about taking paychecks to blab talking points on issues you know nothing about.

Bunnypant's meddling has weakened the Syrians and energized groups like Hezbollah...who have been using the Iraq invasion as a big time recruiting tool on behalf of Iran. The Syrians are caught in a vice..much of it of their own making...and a leader who doesn't look like he's got the stones his old man did.

Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't more dissent in the Arab world than there is...this regime's call for "Democracy" has a double-edge...it also is a message to those in countries under the thumb of BFEE proxies and "friends" of this country, that their houses are being looked at as well.

I fear we'll see a decade of turmoil in this region, and no clear indication if this will mean a better life for these people or more subjugation.

[Binka]

26. Bashar Assad's Wife Ate His Stones For Lunch

Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman is still looking for his stones. I think the dog ate them.

[Ravenseye]

9. Keep In Mind

Lebanon was a freaking hellhole not all that long ago. There are multiple sides there. My family used to have a place there back when it was the Paris of the Middle East. I haven't seen much that really shows how it was like back then. Total Chaos.

I wonder just how many of the people in this latest march were thanking Syira. There are alot of people there who feel that the Syrian army is one of the reasons that stability finally came back to Beirut. They're thankfull for Syria coming in and helping stabilize the country. Many are probably afraid that if Syrian troops leave that chaos will come back.

On the other side, there are of course people who blame Syria in the first place.

Then there are the Fundie crackpots...the terrorists...the christians...and on...and on.

It's a bit more complex of a region than the papers are making it out to be.

[madrchsod]

12. if the syrians were not there

israel would be the defacto ruler of lebanon...read the history of lebanon-phoenicians during the old testament....

[Ravenseye]

17. Yeah Israel Sure Didn't Help

Constantly lobbing artillery into Lebanon cause a couple idiots run down into Israel with bombs strapped to their chests. Not to mention the commando raids run by Sharon a while back that committed genocide in lebanese villages killing everyone.

Ah well. Those were the days.

I doubt though that Israel would have made a full move on Lebanon. Sure they 'secured' a bunch of the southern part of teh country, but the whole thing? No way, that would have sparked another full on Arab-Israeli war.

Who knows though, you could be right.

[Ms. Clio]

10. He's a uniter! n/t

[madrchsod]

11. lebanon was just starting to

reach the level they were at before the civil/israeli war. now bush has forced another civil/religous war. i guess democracy is blooming but it is not what he expected....

[OETKB]

13. My Reply To Fareed Zakaria--"Where Bush Was Right"

In line with the above, Fareed Zakaria wrote the above article which came out a few days before Hezbolah's rally in Lebanon.

My letter:

What Bush got right, Mr. Zakaria, is his notion that he can pull the wool over the public's eyes no matter what means he uses to promote his ideology. Count yourself now in that camp. The first freedom is freedom from harm. Tell me where Mr. Bush has accomplished this. Where is there respected leadership or meaningful diplomacy? The events you are witnessing are the resistance to Mr. Bush's policies, not the results of them. Remember there is more terror in the
world since Mr. Bush took office, not less. It was the Iraqis who wanted elections, not Mr. Bush. It was the UN that set up the process, not this administration. So far we are only responsible for chaos, nothing more. OK, if you must say otherwise, then mission accomplished, and let's bring our troops home where they belong. Check that, bring them home anyways.

I felt compelled to write this letter to Newsweek(Mar 14, 2005) and then turned to my wife and told her we need to cancel our subscription. It wouldn't be a bad idea for others to do the same.

[mmonk]

14. His mistake

was continuing hard rhetoric.

[Junkdrawer]

18. Caption: "Several hundred protesters defend minority view"...

"Eyes found lying once more."

[alfredo]

19. Have they caught the person (s) responsible for the

assassination that sparked the demonstrations? How do we know it was the Syrians? It seems it is assumed that the killing was done by them.

Who has profited from this?

[illflem]

29. Most plausible theory I've heard on the PM's

assassination was it had to do with the international narcotics trade that is well established in Lebanon.
It was their way of saying don't screw with us after several narco traders were busted.

[alfredo]

32. Just like in

Central America

[bigtree]

20. That's the neocon plan

Destablization and chaos; and we move in under the pretext of peacekeeping. In Iraq it was to defend and protect "those in the region", in Lebanon it will be to protect and defend Israel . . .

[zippy890]

21. object - destabilize

divide in the name of freedom
Hezbollah is a whole different thing than Saddam Hussein

this could get really complicated

[spanone]

24. The news today is that they re-instated the pro syrian Prime Minister

that was forced to resign. www.nytimes.com headline!

Bush* WILL be responsible for Civil War in Lebanon.

[hunter]

28. Hah, Cocoa, I thought I was going to fight you!

:evilgrin:

[KoKo]

33. GACK! (cat furball just coughed up) CREDIT? CREDIT? ...

:puke: