Anyone who understands Lebanon care to explain it to fellow DUers?

[BurtWorm]

How come the "opposition" rallies are being dwarfed by pro-Syria rallies? What's the breakdown among the minorities? Who stands with and against whom? Is the situation heading south? Is civil war imminent?

[LynnTheDem]

1. The majority are Muslims (Shia) and they support Hizbollah, which is a

Lebanese Shia group.

They also support Syria and Syria's peacekeeping troops in Lebanon and were the ones who requested the troops in the first place.

The minority Christians support Israel and want all Syrian troops (14,000) out of Lebanon.

I don't think civil war is imminent simply because the majority is quite a large majority (as you can see just by those photos) and are quite solid in their support.

Just imo.

[LisaM]

4. Notice the modifier - "Peacekeeping" troops

so often missing, or should I say ALWAYS missing, from news reports. They make it sound as if it was an invading army.

[BurtWorm]

10. They do make it sound like an invading army.

But it sounds as though Syria really was responsible for stabilizing the country. You don't here much about that either. Kind of disgusting that Bush is criticizing Syria for keeping 14,000 troops in Lebanon while we have 140,000 in Iraq. And Syria's troops actually seem to be real peace-keepers.

[BurtWorm]

7. Thank you very much.

That's a nice concise breakdown. :toast:

[Just Me]

18. The neoCONs seek to incite civil war and chaos though.

Divide, conquest & conquer is their overall SOP as can be seen in their Divided States of America.

[TahitiNut]

2. Well, the trouble started when they cut all the trees (cedars) down.

:silly:

[Ruffhowse]

3. Read this article, it explains it well. Link below.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20050308/ts_usatoday/manylebaneseseesyriaasafriendnotoccupier

[BurtWorm]

6. Thank you.

[xpat]

9. This article does not make it clear

that those opposing the Syrian peace-keeping forces are the Falangists who welcomed the Israeli invasion and who committed the Sabra and Shatilla massacres under Israeli supervision.

[BurtWorm]

15. Thank YOU!

I knew there was a lot more to this shit than met the eye. Although what met the eye today made me sit up and take notice that we were gettting fed crap.

[mopinko]

5. and am i the only one detecting the odor of the cia?

does eveyone in lebanon own a big, brand new flag? i looked at those first pics, and it all looked too staged to me.

[xpat]

11. Hezbollah were giving out the flags at the demo.

[mopinko]

19. and?

sorry, but i am not really up on everything that happens in the middle east. i apologize, i do. but i think half of what an average person (me) knows about the middle east is propoganda and spin. so i honestly don't know who is the bad guy and who is the "freedom fighter". are there any good guys?
is hezbollah susceptable to manipulation by the cia? of all the factions at work in the region, which would be most likely to be a cia puppet or front?
ok. i'll read the rest of the thread, now.

[bigtree]

20. it is the same flag used by the opposition

a change from their usual ak-47 flag

[firefox]

8. Just read a good article

Lebanon invited Syria in to end the civil war in 1982. There is a worthy reading up today titled "Bush's Syrian Delusion" at http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03082005.html

You might want to check out this DU thread- http://tinyurl.com/4tlba

[BurtWorm]

12. Thank you very much!

[Robbien]

13. Lebanon: Washington’s Latest Domino

March 4, 20005 -- Washington’s objectives in Lebanon are ultimately no different than they are in Iraq, Afghanistan or Haiti. The Bush Administration is mounting a three pronged-attack in Lebanon that will involve a permanent American military presence, an economic system dictated by the IMF and direct rule from Washington.



Eventually Lebanon will be broken up according to ethnic and religious divisions. . . It’s a vision of calculated chaos where living conditions never evolve much further than what we see in Afghanistan or Iraq today. In essence, this summarizes Bush’s global democratic revolution.



<snip>


The recent wave of “so-called” peaceful revolutions that are sweeping across the Middle East and Eurasia (Lebanon, Georgia and Ukraine) are the direct result NGOs working in coordination with the US government to foment unrest and bring down the existing regimes. When President Bush says, “Democracy is on the march”; he quite literally means that the expansionistic forces of capitalism are being unleashed on the world without any deterrent to keep them in check.



The groups involved in this global effort work hand-in-hand with both USAID and the NED, (National Endowment for Democracy) both of which are closely linked to US Intelligence organizations. These institutions provide much of the funding for their NGO spawns who operate within the host nation to unseat the present government and replace it with allies of Washington.



The NGOs that perform this task are the IRI (International Republican Institute;Chairman John McCain) Freedom House, The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (Chairman Madeleine Albright) and the Soros Family Foundation.



The strategy of the groups is astonishingly straightforward. They establish relations with opposition political groups, fund opposition media and provide needed resources for spreading a message that discredits the government.

more:
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_16056.shtml

[BurtWorm]

22. These Bushist bastards are so ready to break down any peace

if that peace benefits their anointed enemies.

[Robbien]

23. BushCo is also stirring up civil unrest in Bolivia right now

with Mesa offering to resign yesterday and the population ready to explode.

Any where there is trouble, just under the surface is NED stirring the pot.

[bleedingheart]

14. cool link I found with Pics of Lebanon and some history

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/beirut.htm

This is about Beirut...once called the "Paris of the Middle East"

[Cleita]

16. It was once the banking capital of the Middle East and very

wealthy back in those days. I don't know if it still is a leader in banking.

[bigtree]

17. this is a real good source because you can follow the history and

get definitions of the terms, parties, countries involved, etc. as you read along.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon

here some are recent articles that give a good current breakdown of events and parties involved:

Syria: Latest News and Post Coverage (washingtonpost.com)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/mideast/neareast/syria

[BurtWorm]

21. Thank you!

I should have gone to Wikipedia, but I was hoping someone could give a brief synopsis of the situation. (In other words, I'm a lazy bostid!)