Diplomacy rather than war

[ginnyinWI]

Knee-jerk thinking in the media wants to conclude that Syria will pull out of Lebanon because Bush invaded Iraq. Not so. On Nightline last night, the editor of the Daily Star (Lebanon) was on, saying that it is much more complicated.
Chris Bury was the host, and kept trying to get Rami Khouri to say that it was because of Iraq--he tried several times! But Khouri pointed to the fact that many Arabs in the ME had been working for freedom for decades, even while the U.S. was supporting tyrants.

In the end, he says, it is diplomacy and working through legitimate bodies like the U.N. Security Council that get real changes made, and he thinks the U.S. should have put pressure on Arab leaders that way, not through military invasions which cost 100,000 Iraqi lives, 1500 American lives, 10,000 injured Americans, and 300 billion dollars. He said that the European countries and the U.S., through the Security Council are making a difference now, but that there are equal forces for change coming from the people themselves.

World opinion lines up with John Kerry once again: we need diplomacy and respect for the rule of international law, not military coercion.

Here is Khouri's editorial: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=13073

[TayTay]

1. It also has something to do with

the impending power struggle in the ME between the Shia and the Sunnis. This is deleicate stuff or we could wind up with civil war. This affects Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and, of course, Iraq.