3.06.2005

Morning in the Middle East

Oh, my. Oh, my!

Remember Ed Asner and "Not in Our Name?" How about Sean Penn's intellectual tomes from his rich, fact-finding forays into pre post-Saddam Iraq? Or the great French statesman, de Villepin's brave confrontations against the evil US on the UN floor? Michael Moore and his 'Minutemen' of Iraq? Bushitler? Ronald Raygun?

"The lesson of these last weeks is that it turns out Washington's Zionists know the Arab people a lot better than Europe's Arabists." Hoowhee, Mark Steyn, you are one for pithy zingers!

The Left is again using its superior intellect to configure the rightness of riding the wrong side of history. So it would seem. Let's take the recent happenings in Lebanon as an example:

"The fact that there are people in the streets of Beirut calling for Syrian withdrawal would have been inconceivable six months ago," said Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton's former National Security Adviser. "I realize that my partisan friends would not like it if I said it, but the answer is, yes, there has been some success."

Last saturday capped an astonishing week: an unrehearsable combination of tragedy, popular will, carefully coordinated behind-the-scenes diplomacy and unusual allied unanimity. The most electrifying moment came on Monday, when 25,000 Lebanese defied a government ban and staged a rally in Martyrs' Square to coincide with a parliamentary debate on the Valentine's Day massacre of Hariri, which was widely believed to be the work of Syria. The Beirut gathering was as unprecedented as it was diverse, in a country where power is constitutionally divided among sectarian communities. Troops and riot police deployed around the city center, but they did not stop thousands from joining the peaceful throng. Inside, the parliamentary debate dissolved into chaos after pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami stunned the chamber by announcing his resignation. "Real independence is not given," said Issaf Chaker Skinner, a Lebanese woman in the joyous crowd outside. "It must be taken." The unprecedented images of people power that beamed across the Arab world on al-Jazeera, said State Department officials, were almost as important as the event itself. -- Time Magazine's Michael Duffy


What are we seeing in these days? Well, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are all in the midst of a controlled revolution. Whether it is the same old 'one step forward, two steps back', or something a bit more -- time will tell. I believe it is the latter. The Left wants the former, oh, you know they do. You see, its all about the failure of the hated, chimp-like cowboy from Texas. This, for the Left, is victory. Never mind problem-solving in the real -- the Left would prefer that it remain upon the blackboard -- the better to nuance and fine-tune their utopian future (always in the future) ideals.

Morning in the Middle-east. Grand, isn't it?
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