Report: Bushco instigated chaos in Lebanon
Posted by Charles II on November 24, 2007
Karim Makdisi, The Guardian, opines that the US is the instigator in leading Lebanon down the path toward civil war:
However, in light of the failure of the US-backed Israeli war to destroy Hizbullah last year, the US has for now shifted its strategy away from a military solution to co-opting the Lebanese state itself to pursue these tasks on its behalf - much as it has done in Palestine with Abu Mazen's recent declaration of war against Hamas.
By recognising March 14's disputed claims to executive authority... the US appears to believe it has accomplished the first stage of this strategy which has focused on removing the Resistance's official cloak of state legitimacy it enjoyed under President Lahoud.
The second phase of US strategy is to create what the Pentagon calls a "strategic alliance" with the Lebanese army - the only state institution that enjoys broad support from all Lebanese communities, regardless of sect or class - by transforming it into a force that would confront, rather than support, the Resistance. US military aid has been rising exponentially, as has the EU's; while March 14 has been working hard to instal officers loyal to its cause in a bid to reverse the army's pro-Resistance sympathies.
9 Responses to “Report: Bushco instigated chaos in Lebanon”
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Stormcrow said
These people propose to use the Lebanese army to unseat Hisbullah? I did read that right, did I not?
I’m having trouble believing my eyes.
The IDF was run out with its tail between its legs last summer. And the Bush regime wants to have another go with the Lebanese army???
That would really be funny, if it weren’t setting a lot of Lebanese kids up to get slaughtered. Just like so many lambs in a slaughter pen. The Lebanese army goes up against Hisbullah and they won’t have a chance of a snowball in hell.
Phoenix Woman said
An easier way for Lebanon’s ruling elite to fight Hizbullah would be to treat the average Lebanese person with decency and respect, thus depriving Hizbullah of a disgruntled populace from which to gain recruits.
But instead, the average Lebanese person is treated somewhere between new and used toilet tissue. This is shown by how tens of thousands of Beirut families were forcibly evicted from places they’d lived for centuries just so billionare real estate mogul Rafik Hariri could claim ownership, bulldoze everything flat, and replace it all with a privatized, gated community called “Solidere”: A collection of shiny new skyscrapers and shops priced well beyond the purchasing power of the average Beiruti (assuming he or she could get in, which is not a safe assumption; the only non-rich Beirutis allowed into the place are those who work for the moguls who run it).
Charles said
Yeah, Stormcrow, if one were inclined to the snide, one could say that Hezbollah is the combat wing of the Lebanese army.
I would guess the Lebanese army will fracture if the government is unable to reach an accommodation. The Bush strategy seems to be to generate chaos everywhere. They are succeeding.
Stormcrow said
Yeah.
And from what I’ve read, Nasrullah is more than smart enough to make political hay out of this.
What they are “succeeding” in doing is to place some very smart people in positions from which they can lever us right out of the Middle East.
Or wherever it is that we are fucking up at the moment.
The last I heard, Nasrullah was running himself for the job of political boss of all of southern Lebanon. And winning.
Hariri and his buddies are making one of the most frequently made mistakes of the last two centuries’ history of folly and misrule. They are making the assumption that loyalty upwards is unilateral, and does not need to be repaid by loyalty downwards.
Nasrullah is not making that mistake – so far – and that is why he is winning. That and a head for strategy.
Charles said
You’re correct about that, Stormcrow, but Lebanon as a whole is a much tougher nut. Being boss of south Lebanon is sort of like being boss of south Texas. The money is up north, and you have a lot of border jumpers to contend with.
Because Nasrullah and Hezbollah are thinking long-term and building a political movement rather than just the traditional Lebanese militia, they’re likely to prevail over the longer term. In the short term, Bush will get his chaos.
There’s an interesting sidelight to all this. Ha’aretz is reporting that Bushco is inviting Syria to Annapolis. If they’d wanted Syria to attend, they’d have worked out the answer behind closed doors before asking the question. Instead, they put out word that Syria had been hurt by the September bombing raid and had lost a critical “card,” by which we are supposed to read “nuclear.” So, probably Israel and the US wanted Syria to refuse. Which would be good enough reason to explain why Syria accepted, provisional to discussions of the Golan. So, everyone can make the rhetorical points they want to, while ignoring the fact that Gaza is burning and Lebanon is smoldering.
Stormcrow said
LOL.
I’m not a fan of the el Assad dynasty by any means. But even Hafez’ idiot son can pick diplomats that can walk W’s little band of incompetents in circles all day long.
Sweet chocolate Jesus, I wish grownups were running this country.
Charles said
Better hope for a miracle, then. One of Hillary’s top advisors, Sid Blumenthal, can still write:
The Democrats have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory before and it can happen again, even under these circumstances, when history is turning the Democrats’ way.
The Democrats at key junctures have been seduced by the illusion of anti-politics to their own detriment. Anti-politics upholds a self-righteous ideal of purity that somehow political conflict can be transcended on angels’ wings. The consequences on the right of an assumption of moral superiority and hubris are apparent. Their plight stands as a cautionary tale, but not only as an object lesson for them.
In context, this translates as “Stop demanding that Hillary stand for doing the right thing.”
I felt obliged to point out to him that the in the 1960s/1970s, it was the anti-war movement types who had been the real pragmatists. They understood the reality of occupation and what it does to the occupier. Those who held “self-righteous ideals of purity” were those who believed that American arms could achieve any objective. The result was a broken army, revolts everywhere against Pax Americana, and the beginning of wilderness time for the Democratic Party.
Phoenix Woman said
Sid Blumenthal is a Clinton loyalist, full stop. Which is sad, because he’s smart enough to know that what he’s spouting on her behalf is nonsense.
Charles said
Oh, I respect him, PW. Hillary has name recognition and Bill’s Rolodex. Among political professionals, that’s like owning Fort Knox and the Treasury. He’s pretty sure that she can win and he’s pretty sure she isn’t as stupid or crazy as any of the Republicans running.
I’m not as sanguine. She strikes me as someone who feels a need to prove that she’s tough. That’s how LBJ got into Vietnam, by worrying that the Republicans would say he wasn’t tough.