.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Rantings of a Sandmonkey

Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Thursday, December 15, 2005

The Syria hitlist

After all those assassinations, 6 names remain on the syrian hitlist. Here they are: Anti-Syrian Lebanese figures including Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh are among six men on what a Lebanese newspaper has called a new "hit-list". Al-Balad newspaper, quoting government and parliamentary sources, on Thursday named the other alleged targets "on the hit-list of people to be killed" as deputies Wael Abu Faoor, Samir Franjieh, Elias Atallah and Farid Makari. The list was published a day after prominent anti-Syrian MP and press magnate Gibran Tueni was buried in a politically and emotionally charged funeral following his killing in a bomb blast which many blamed on Damascus. The six people named on Thursday all belong to the anti-Syrian majority in parliament which swept the polls in June, in the first election in Lebanon after Syria withdrew from the country, ending nearly 30 years of political and military domination. "It is almost the same list that surfaced before Tueni was assassinated and which also included his name," said Atallah, one of the MPs. "We will be more careful and limit our movements but this will not change our policies." I guess the reason why the Junior Harriri's name is absent from that list is due to the fact that an assassination attempt against him could seriously turn all the tables against Syria. That doesn't mean he feels safe though; he is still moving around all over the gulf states, probably out of fear of getting assassinated if he comes back to Lebanon. I am afraid of what will happen if those assassinations continue. While some people theorize that they would scare the anti-syrian critics into silence, I have a feeling that it could end up framing in the minds of most lebanese that they are at war, and that they should start acting like it. Arabs usually have this stereotype of the lebanese male of being effimenate and only after his fun or the latest fashion, but they forget that the majority of them engaged in one hell of a bloody civil war of the kind that the arab world rarely sees. They gave up fighting willingly, and most of them are against warfare from what they saw of its horrors, but it would be a mistake to think to underestimate them. Almost all oftheir political leaders are former warlords and they could all start having their militias once again, only this time united and in the form of the lebanese army. God knows Aoun especially would sign up for that plan, since it was the Syrians who exiled him. That's one itch I would bet he is dying to scratch. And the US could provide the lebanese army with all kinds of military aid to beef it up. It could be done. Two problems though: 1) How would they convince Hezbollah to get out of the way, if not join them? and 2) Do I really want to see a lebanese-syrian war? Is that the only soloution left at this point? It sure seems like it, with the Mehlis report taking this long, the option of sanctions looking more and more remote and the syrian regime insistance to continue to mess with lebanese affairs. The Lebanese may have to depend on theirselves to save Lebanon's future, even if the price is more warfare and bloodshed. sigh...

7 Comments:

At 12/15/2005 10:09:00 AM, Blogger Papa Ray said...

Freedom from tyrants and dictators is only possible when the slaves revolt and take over. If they have outside help they might welcome it for a while but despise it later.

Thats why the Iraqi people are still squabbling among themselves. Their guilt and hate of the the "occupiers" grinds at them each day, and their guilt and shame at not being able to do without the "occupiers" is even worse.

Arabs and Persians can not stand the truth of their situation and culture, so they blame anyone and everyone else. To say that when they take responibility for themselves and change is easy.

The fact is, they have had thousands of years and have not been able to do it yet.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

 
At 12/15/2005 12:21:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am not really worried about a civil war. Post 9-11 Middle Ea Any attempt of HA to seize power by force will trigger an international intervention. People here are aware of that and almost wish the HA do this.

Arabs find Lebanese effeminated because they only know downtown Beirut and like to hang in in gay bars (especially the guy from the Gulf). Most of the militiamen come from the impoverished mountains which are tribal and not so foreigner-friendly. It's also the most beautiful part of Lebanon. I know some ex-militiamen that were trained in Israel - believe me, you don't want to offense them.

 
At 12/15/2005 01:35:00 PM, Blogger AK said...

A bit stupied to kill of the people oppose them, they must know that it is obvious who is doing it

 
At 12/15/2005 07:31:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is very simplistic to point a finger at Syrians. Knowing the pressure Syria is under from the itnernational community you would think that there is no way this is done by the Syrians.

Yeah let us build up theories like we did on the WMD and create anger and hate and fear against Syria so we go to war with Syria too.

 
At 12/16/2005 07:34:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Only if you have a very low IQ would you think that international pressure maens anything to a tyrant. Assad could care less what the good people of Togo think about him. He knows that The UN will do what it does best, have a meeting. The UN will not take any action, that will be up to the member states. It is just within the realm of possibility that France and the USA will invade and occupy Syria. That will be a good thing, for ALL nations in the ME.
War is the ONLY way to end tyranny. It can be either Civil or Foreign, pick your posion.
Stehpinkeln

 
At 12/16/2005 08:18:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stehpinkeln,

You are a war monger and a loser. Hungry for blood and destruction. I hope to see your family dead one day by a US bomb and let us see how you will support war for democracy.

Only when your children are ripped apart and burnt to the bones by US bombs or may be you end up in hell you will seek peace vs. war.

People like you don't deserve the gift of life.

 
At 12/16/2005 08:24:00 AM, Blogger programmer craig said...

So, anon, your assertion is that when the US kills people's families, they respond by becoming peaceful?

Not really very logical there. That's OK though. I doubt many people pay attention when somebody says other people should be killed, talks about "peace" - there is no peace in your world.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home