[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Playing it again?

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Playing it again?
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1210609254.shtml


   Barry Rubin, director of the [1]Global Research in International
   Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the [2]Middle East Review of
   International Affairs Journal writes:

     [3]Lebanon to West: Wake Up Fast!

     ...What Spain was in 1936; Lebanon is today.

     Does anyone remember the Spanish Civil War? Briefly, a fascist
     revolt took place against the democratic government. The rebels
     were motivated by several factors, including anger that their
     religion had not been given enough respect and regional grievances,
     but essentially they sought to put their ideology and themselves
     into power. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy backed the rebels with
     money and guns. The Western democracies stood by and did nothing.

     >Guess who won? And guess whether that outcome led to peace or
     world war.

     Funny, I thought September 11 changed everything.

     Why should Lebanese Sunni, Druze, and Christians risk their lives
     when the West doesn't help them? Every Israeli speaking nonsense
     about Syria making peace; every American claiming Damascus might
     split from Tehran; every European preaching appeasement has in fact
     been engaged in confidence-breaking measures.

     Hizballah doesn't need to win a military victory but only to show
     it can win one, using that position of strength to try to force its
     demands on the moderate government. . The government has already
     accepted Michel Suleiman, Syria's candidate for president. But
     Hizballah and the rest say this is not enough: they want veto power
     over everything.

     The goal of Hizballah, and its Syrian and Iranian backers at
     present is not the full conquest of Lebanon--something beyond their
     means--but to control the government so it does nothing they
     dislike: no strong relations with the West, no ability to stop war
     against Israel, no disarming Hizballah's militias or countering
     that group's control over large parts of the country, and certainly
     no investigation of Syrian involvement in terrorism there.

     Why, three years after Damascus ordered the murder of former prime
     minister Rafiq Hariri do investigators dawdle, having edited out
     the names of top Syrian officials they blamed for the killing in
     their initial report?...

     Israel bombed a nuclear reactor being built in Syria. Rice
     reportedly opposed the action. The world yawned...

     ...The battle isn't over, which is all the more reason for
     real--not just verbal--international action. Hizballah has made its
     point for the moment, that it is the most powerful and to it every
     knee must bend. Yet without serious political and diplomatic
     support for Lebanon's government and real costs inflicted on Syria
     and Iran, the battle will be lost eventually.

     For all those in the West who don't like Israel, then at least help
     the people you pretend to like. Back the Lebanese government with
     real power and aid, covertly or overtly, those battling the radical
     forces in Lebanon.

References

   1. http://www.gloriacenter.org/
   2. http://meria.idc.ac.il/
   3. http://www.gloriacenter.org/index.asp?pname=submenus/articles/2008/rubin/5_12.asp