Aoun: 'History Will Judge Us All On Our Actions'

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

'History Will Judge Us All On Our Actions'
By MICHEL AOUN
July 31, 2006; Page A10


(snip)

You see, after Lebanon was liberated from Syrian occupation, the international community (apparently enamored by the quixotic images of the Cedar Revolution) demanded that the Lebanese elections take place immediately and "on time"; it brushed off our grave concerns about the electoral law in force, which had been carefully crafted by Syria and imposed upon Lebanon in the year 2000 to ensure re-election of Syria's favorite legislators.

This flawed electoral law -- initially imposed upon us by Syria and then reimposed upon us by the international community -- has had disastrous results. It brought to power a Lebanese government with absolute two-thirds majority powers, but which was elected by only one-third of the populace. With a legislative and executive majority on one side, and a popular majority on the other side, the result was absolute gridlock. Currently in Lebanon, there is no confluence of popular will with government will, and therefore the government cannot deal effectively with this or any other problem.

(snip)

Mr. Aoun, the former prime minister of Lebanon and commander of its armed forces, is currently a deputy in the Lebanese parliament.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115429780106621697.html (subscription)

[wiley]

1. But will anyone ever judge history and learn from it?

[bemildred]

2. Well, I would imagine Aoun is alarmed at the rise of Hizbullah.

I'm not willing to subscribe to the WSJ to find out what he thinks though.
History has already "judged" him.