Posted on 02/28/2005 2:15:27 PM PST by rantblogger
By Paul Greenberg Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Did you see the pictures from Beirut? How could anybody miss them? A tidal wave of mourners/demonstrators had turned out for the funeral of Rafik Hariri, who had been blown up -- along with various of his bodyguards -- after he started objecting to the Syrian occupation of his country.
A billionaire who had helped rebuild Lebanon after its disastrous civil war, Rafik Hariri had served as its prime minister off and on for a decade, but he was a marked man as soon as he began objecting to Syria's occupation.
Washington now has recalled the American ambassador from Damascus, and even the French seem outraged at what has happened to their former and Syria's current colony. It seems Jacques Chirac, the French president, was a longtime friend of Rafik Hariri's. Paris still refuses to recognize Hezbollah (which controls Lebanon's southern border with Israel) as a terrorist group, but it's demanding at least a pro forma investigation of the former premier's assassination.
The most impressive thing about the funeral procession, some 200,000 strong, was how varied it was. It seemed to have drawn from every quarter of Lebanon's population -- Sunni, Shiite, Druse, Christian, secular and miscellaneous. It brought back memories of the time when Beirut was the thriving capital of a peaceful country with a government in which all its people were recognized. Now its rulers might as well wear a sign: Imported from Damascus.
Shouting anti-Syrian slogans, the demonstrators defied their occupiers -- and the collaborators who do Damascus' dirty work in Lebanon. The Syrians maintain some 15,000 Syrian troops in that country, along with an extensive network of agents who keep tabs on anyone who dares speak out for a free Lebanon. Like Rafik Hariri. His murder may have been intended to cow the Lebanese population; instead, it mobilized it. The vast crowd moved through the streets like a defiant message to the Syrian army: Leave!
Such a scene would have been unimaginable just a year ago. But if enough Lebanese mount enough demonstrations, and the Western powers keep the pressure on, the days of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon could be numbered. And if Syria's current Assad is forced to give Lebanon its freedom, how long before the Syrians themselves begin demonstrating against their dictator? That's the thing about freedom: It spreads.
There was something not only heartening but familiar about this outpouring of grief and anger. And independent spirit. It brought to mind the crowds of determined, dignified Iraqis walking to the polls despite all the threats and suicide bombings in that country, and afterward giving the V sign with those purple fingers, the new color of freedom.
The demonstration in Beirut was just the latest sign that freedom is breaking out in the most unlikely places these days. There was the election of a new Palestinian leader who is talking peace with the Israelis. (Yasser Arafat is definitely dead and buried.) Then there was the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, where a huge, almost permanent demonstration in the streets of Kiev forced the old regime to recognize the results of a free election there.
Yes, that's the thing about freedom: It spreads. And where it does, peace begins to sprout. Bashir Assad's fellow autocrats, not just in Tehran but in Cairo and Riyadh, must be getting nervous -- and they have reason to be. The natives are restless.
The pictures from Beirut brought to mind not just recent and hopeful events but a different and exhilarating time -- the late 1980s, when it was also said that democracy would never replace the armored divisions and web of secret police that held another part of the world in thrall. The old Soviet empire in Eastern Europe, we were told, was permanent, and we might as well get used to it.
I can still see, and almost hear, J. William Fulbright, Arkansas' gift to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, making that point: Any vision of the world without a Soviet Union was just a pipe dream, and a dangerous one at that.
Yet one by one, through largely peaceful demonstrations, the nations of Eastern Europe threw off their chains, and threw out their occupiers. It was hard to believe -- some of us had to rub our eyes -- but the walls kept tumbling down. And when the most formidable of them all, the Berlin Wall, toppled, the unimaginable had become the real.
It wasn't long before not just the Soviet Empire was swept aside but the Soviet Union itself imploded. Danged if Ronald Reagan hadn't been right when he said the end of Soviet Communism was nigh. It sounded unlikely, even preposterous, at the time. But that's the thing about freedom: It spreads.
May it spread further -- speedily and in our day. Paul Greenberg is editorial page editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Paul_Greenberg@adg.ardemgaz.com
President Bush on Friday referred to the Purple Revolution.
It's been a rough time for the left. I hope it keeps getting worse for them.
Celebrate the spread of freedom, but beware of our own fifth columnists who use such victories to put the country back to sleep and put them back in charge.
This is so wonderful...reading Paul Greenberg and listening to MelGibson on Michael Medved's talk show.
God bless the Lebenese and keep them safe from additional harm.
Today is a great day for America, for Lebanon, and for freedom-loving people everywhere. And that is the news story you won't hear in the MSM.
But as Reagan said, "It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't have to worry about who gets the credit."
bump! :^D
The Dems in Washington will come around but the Dummies never will.
I'm enjoying watching the left try to explain this without giving Bush credit.
What we are seeing is truly remarkable. It really is like the fall of the Wall.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Well, I keep wanting to give Reagan credit for the fall of the Soviet Union. But - those darned Soviets just make it difficult so to do. See various other threads that appear on this very same, FR.
No man ever possessed more arrogance or less wisdom than that old windbag.
Although she lacks the ability to run so much as a one person hot dog stand, Hillary is a shrewd politico. Watch for her to align her self with any success of President Bush's well thought out strategies, while cleverly reserving some " I told you so " retorts, if something goes wrong.
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