Lebanese army kills top Islamist after three-year hunt

Yahoo /AFP ^ | Sat Aug 14, 2010 | Rana Moussaoui Rana Moussaoui

[Netz]

Dear Lebanese friend:

We've discussed Lebanon's fragile social and political fabric but the true test of what you say about how Sunnis are not radical but Shiites are will be tested very soon and unfortunately soon...in Iraq.

Now that President Obama is ABANDONING the Iraqis you will soon see a horrific bloodbath in Iraq between Sunnis and Shiites. This will make Lebanon look like childsplay I am sorry to say.

Every night now, gangs of infiltrators (Shiites) are seeping into Iraq from Iran and (Sunnis) sneaking in from Syria, setting the stage for the takeover of Iraq by Iran. Iraq is now so porous that it's a free for all destination for many armed groups.

Obama is leaving Iraq in a vacuum and every piece of feces is being sucked into that country. A major Muslim-Muslim war is about to happen there and Iran is sure, that very soon, Iraq will be a province of Iran...so much for your Sunni moderation and Shiite extremism.

President Carter abandoned Iran.
President Obama is abandoning Iraq

A lot of blood is about to be shed...

[hannibaal]

Actually I mentioned that sunnis are more extremist than shiites, not the other way around. Then again in terms of non muslims they both are fanatical. I read more about the situation in lebanon after you posted that link, and believe it or not they mentioned that clash started over a parking space a hezbollah official was arguing with some people of that abhash sunni group which go to the mosque there. About the Iraq issue, im sure that you are right and iran will get a foothold there, especially given that the majority of iraqis are shiite. If it turns out in lebanon that hezbollah did infact assassinate hariri, then you can be sure to see the sunnis start to get even more aggressive, although with the way this investigation has gone over the last few years i doubt they will ever come to a conclusion, and the longer its delayed the less likely they will.
I have many muslim friends and acquaintances, and for the most part theyre all great people, but they tend to be well off and probably because of that, not so observant of their religion; more progressive i’ll say. Unfortunately that is not the case among the masses of muslims around the world. Ive been to lebanon around 3 years combined with all vacations etc.. but I really havent ventured to muslim areas all that much if at all actually, and i remember once a friend invited me to go to his place which was very close to the hezbollah area of south beirut, and he told me make sure to hide my necklace with the cross under my shirt because there are some psychos around and you never know if theyll cause problems. I think the world would be alot better off if people were just more tolerant and a little less ignorant. Lebanon is a tolerant place i would say, or atleast used to be, the civil war changed all that and the years of occupation aswell, everyone there thinks on a sectarian basis, back their own religion, the shiites have hezbollah and amal who although were at odds during the civil war are like two peas in a pod now, the sunnis have the future movement, the druze have the progressive socialist party, the christians have the lebanese forces and the free patriotic movement, the latter of which is politically allied to hezbollah at the moment, because the sunnis basically cheated them out of ministerial positions that they were entitled to back in 2005 i believe. All of these parties think basically on a religious level, and not for the lebanons benefit. I blame the palestinians and the syrians(especially) for that, the syrians were masters of pitting the lebanese against one another with one simple assassination of a leader. I read once that lebanon was the only “arab” country that had an increase in jewish residents after the creation of the state of israel, although that lebanese jewish community all but disappeared during the civil war, i think the jewish lebanese living in lebanon number in the single digits now. Lebanon however is a different organism than iraq, lebanons grievances are mainly between corrupt leaders wanting a bigger piece of the money laundering pie. Alot of spies have been caught recently, of all faiths, i think about 600 or something ridiculous like that, goes to show how many people willing to sellout hezbollah, they must be pretty easy to come by.

Ugh the headache of the situation comes again, it would be so relieving to know what alot of them are fighting for, particularly in iraq, never understood what kind of message blowing up a market of civilians does, i mean whats the motive behind that?... just plain weird.

About obama abandoning iraq, I feel its more a political move to please people at home rather than a smart decision. If you ask me, if it is all undone because of withdrawal, it means every person who died in that war died in vain, we need to leave iraq a strong, stable nation, not one that can implode at the whim of its neighbours.

[Netz]

I know you have a lot to say, a lot of frustration, a lot of bewilderment. In terms of education and finance, of course there is a connection between extremism, violence and resorting to terror BUT...most terror leaders are highly-educated and wealthy individuals. Shiite, Sunni, Christian, Druze, Carcessian, Alawite, Jew or whatever MUST not always kill each other.

When the Koran is used to incite, when mosques are used as missile launching pads, when schools, UN buildings and private apartment blocks are used as weapons storage facilities, when Muslims attack embassies just because of a cartoon, when Muslims kill in the name “Allah is Great” then how can you REASON with these people. The situation is not just “weird” as you called it, it is downright ABSURD and pointless. I know that the people of Lebanon are peace-oriented but with so many internal weaknesses I don't know how to arrive at that goal.

In Iraq or in many other places in the world, Muslim terrorists blow up public places, they kill the very people that they would like to win over to their side. It is the true meaning of terror - to instill terror in the hearts of innocent people, to keep them scared, to prevent them from having a constructive and democratic dialogue and that is the very reason why they must be eliminated, terror defeated ONLY by (unfortunately) killing them all. That is what needs to be done.

With regards to Obama’s policy of withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan...it will be a disaster, they are not ready yet. Obama is another Jimmy Carter...G-d help us all.