Posted on 02/18/2005 9:35:02 AM PST by HAL9000
ALARM - Lebanon: the opposition announces the "insurrection for independence "
BEIRUT - the Lebanese opposition antisyrienne, joined together at a plenary sitting, announced Friday evening the "insurrection for independence "and claimed a" government of transition "to supervise the Syrian withdrawal.
MORE...
Actually there is much more ambiguity surrounding how the Syrians got in. Various ministers denied they made the request but when the Syrians entered it was virtually a fait accompli. Secondly, they came in for many reasons not just to "defeat the Muslims". The Muslims weren't Lebanon's problem - it was the Palestinians who fomented the necessary animus to bring about the civil war. All part of Syria's cynical plan for Greater Syria. Your understanding is simplistic and truncated.
The only groups in Lebanon that benefit from Syria's boots in Lebanon are terror groups like Hizbollah ... they curiously now 'caution' (or is it threaten) civil war if the Syrians withdraw. Like all the terrorist groups, the best policy is to do the exact opposite that they want:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20050219/wl_nm/lebanon_dc
Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, is now a formidable Lebanese political party as well as an anti-Israel guerrilla force that still controls much of south Lebanon since helping end a 22-year Israeli occupation in May 2000.
The death of Hariri, a wealthy Sunni Muslim businessman, sparked an outpouring of public grief mixed with anger against Syria, instinctively held responsible by many Lebanese.
The anti-Syrian sentiments now uniting many of Lebanon's Christians, Druze and Sunnis have not been voiced by Shi'ite leaders counted among the most loyal allies of Damascus. Shi'ites form the country's biggest religious community.
"All I care about is the preservation of Christian life. I don't care who rules what dirt as long as Christians are free to be Christians."
Syrians have been killing Christian leaders before they killed Hariri... and Lebanese Christians have no rights under what the maronite Church calls a 'cutthroat regime' of baathist Syria:
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&97FB8634CABB133DC2256FAC002A1A65
Maronite Church Blames Hariri's Murder on 'Cutthroat Regime'
The Maronite Church has blamed Hariri's assassination on "the cut-throat dictatorial regime" that gotten used to chop off the heads" of opposing leaders and demanded a termination of Syria's tutelage over Lebanon to prevent a drift to a new civil war.
Calling Hariri's death an "incalculable national loss," the Maronite Archbishops recalled in a communiqué released after an emergency conclave in Bkirki under the Patriarch Sfeir the long list of assassinated Lebanese leaders during Syria's 18-year-old domination of Lebanon.
The communiqué, which called Hariri a martyr, noted that his murder followed several assassinations of Lebanese leaders, including two presidents, Bashir Gemayel and Rene Mouawad, and one Prime Minister, Rashid Karami.
"This shows a systematic scheme employed by the dictatorial regime that is used to decapitating public opinion leaders to leave the people without a leadership so that they can be oppressed and enslaved," the communiqué said. It did not mention Syria by name, but the inference was crystal-clear.(
"250 American soldiers and 70 French soldiers were killed at their HQs in West Beirut. Lebanese and Iranian Islamists supported by Syrian logistics headed the operation. According to certain military sources, both buildings had been packed full of dynamite, which explains the high number of casualties. France and the USA remained indifferent to these massacres. In the wake of this, the soldiers of both countries were repatriated because Beirut had turned into a dangerous city, even for the mightiest fighters of all times."
YES - GREAT LIST OF SYRIAN WAR CRIMES.
The murder of the U.S. marines in Beirut was a Hizbollah operation - we never properly retaliated for that crime, and Hizbollah has had the protection of Syria in Lebanon for the past 25 years.
"Religious Surge Alarms Secular Syrians"
ROFLMAO!!!
Have you been ASLEEP this past 3 years?!?
It has been noted by folks much sharper than you that there is a connection between religious extremism and dictatorships... the closed societies force away the compromises of democracy and create extremist politics - INCLUDING TERRORISM.
Democracy in the middle east is a threat ONLY to dictators and extremists.
" Muslim clerics, meanwhile, are growing increasingly bold in asking for democratic political reforms that could give them a larger role in government."
Yes, indeed ... there is a cure, a solution: DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Syria's dictatorship, like Saddam's was an INSTIGATOR OF TERRORISM and part of the fetid swamp of tyranny, corruption and anti-western ideology that breeds Jihadism.
"Democracy is mob rule."
NO. The mafia is 'mob rule', and the bloody baathist mob rulers in Damascus need to quit killing people, repressing them and inciting violence and terrorism.
Destro, if you hate the idea of people ruling themselves, where do you get the idea that it woudl be better for a violent, vicious fraction of them to rule the rest??? none are so blind as those who refuse to see what's right in front of them.
"Syria is the best country in the Middle East to be a Christian," says Stephen Griffiths, head of the Anglican Church in Syria. Although there are only 1.3 million Christians - about 10 percent of the population - more people attend church here than in England.
-----
Talk about damning with faint praise ... yeah, compared to Saudi Arabia, Syria is a Christian haven, but the laws still follow rules such as forbidding Christians to inherit from Muslims, and Muslims converting can still be faced with legal and extra-legal penalties, etc.
Syria makes it as a top 50 countries that persecute Christians:
http://www.jesusjournal.com/articles/publish/article_280.html
Hariri is a Sunni Muslim and citizen of Saudi Arabia.
A BullShiite List - Mexico is on the same list as Syria??? Laughable.
so what if Hariri is Sunni Muslim???
1 million Lebanese - Christian and Muslim alike - mourned his passing and are enraged that Syrian puppetmasters murdered one of their leaders. You apparently seem to think you know better than Lebanese themselves who to respect. That may explain why you have distain for democracy among these 'unwashed masses'.
I'll keep my faith in people power, thank you.
1 million Lebanese - Christian and Muslim alike - and you trust the reporting of the easily manipulated mainstream press? I don't mind going after Syria - I may even welocme it providing America protects the Christians if she overthrows the Alawite regime - protecting Christians is not something America is known for doing.
Well this isn't going to make Syria and Hezzbollah very happy....they have to worry about an insurrection on their western border in Lebanon, Israel to the south and a young Democracy to their east....!
Didn't know that. Most Lebanese I have talked with (pretty few admittedly) want everyone out of Lebanon. Syrians, Israelis, etc.
Again, I am not saying Syria is the "good" guy - only that Syria does have one aspect we need to preserve if and when we take the regime out - its tolerance and acceptance for Christians.
"More than you can chew, meet Syria's teeth" ping. :')
Destro,
I appreciate your thoughts about Christians needing protection after Syria leaves. However, please understand as a fact that Lebanese Christians want Syria out. As a Lebanese civilian who was shelled by the Syrian army, I can personally tell you that a shell does not explode any less if it is lobbed by a secular fascist force or an islamo-fascist force.
If every Lebanese thinks of themselves as Lebanese first instead of their religion, we would have our country back. I want all occupiers out of Lebanon (yes, I absolutely was also for Israel leaving Lebanon).
I hope that there is a silver lining to the murder of Hariri, and that is that it would result in more unity among the Lebanese, which is the only way we're ever going to get rid of Syria.
"As a Lebanese civilian who was shelled by the Syrian army, I can personally tell you that a shell does not explode any less if it is lobbed by a secular fascist force or an islamo-fascist force. "
Thanks for contributing to the discussion ... you speak with the authority of the first-hand witness... I hope all goes well for Lebanon. The Middle East is seeing a new breath of freedom this Spring, it won't be long now.
Who will keep the Sunnis off the Christians back when Syria leaves - as it will eventually - England left Ireland did it not? Who will keep Christians from killing Christians? Syria shelled Lebanese Christian militias and fellow Christians shelled each other.
Your argument for a 'strong-man solution is as hollow as the arguments for retaing George III's rule over the American colonies:
Why dont you listen to the lebanese?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1348086/posts
"Who will keep Christians from killing Christians?"
Democracy, human rights, and rule of law would be good places to start.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.