It seems more like Lebanons Hezbollah exists by the threat of more violence like their seizure of the capital, assassination of the President in concert with Syria (with which we shouldn't confuse Lebanon) and repeated, often successful, attempts to start bloody civil wars between Islamic terrorists and secular authority. So, OK, maybe they have bikinis, but let's not pretend they're some sort of beacon of peaceful secular democracy. Bottom line is an Islamic terrorist group assassinated the secular executive thanks to its decades of aid from supposedly secular Syria and even though that's been proven beyond doubt they STILL managed to take control of the government, not by the "grace" of Christian "allies" but due to their utter exhaustion.
While we're correcting factual errors: Rafiq Hariri was a former PM, having resigned months before his murder, not the president. And Hezbollah was not a factor in the outbreak of the big Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990, as it was only created in the eighties. So I'm not really sure which "successful attempts to start bloody civil wars" you are talking about.
Lebanon is a very complicated country, and hardly anyone has clean hands if you look back at the civil war (for all that people like to blame Sabra and Shatila on Israel, it was the Christian phalangists who did the actual killing). Do stop trying to oversimplify.
Of course not; it merely aided an Islamic terror groups Presidential assassination as part of years of military occupation in Lebanon (again, it's funny how all the critics of Israeli occupation in Palestine shrug off Syrian occupation of an internationally recognized sovereign state, even when it involves assassinating that states president). If it looks, walks and quacks like a duck....
So it did (well, ignoring your factual errors). Far from me be it to say Syria's regime is a pleasant one. All I'm trying to do here is pointing out how much more complicated the Middle East is than you make it out to be, and how wrong and sometimes dangerous your oversimplified generalizations are.
Sure, they're all occurring in dictatorships, but they aren't occurring in all dictatorships, are they? Just the secular pro-Western ones; apparently Iranians don't mind brutal repression (except for the one police shot in the head a couple years ago for protesting). Sure, some of the protesters are liberal even by Western standards, but don't try to tell me they're the vanguard because we both know better. There's strong reason to believe the MB is simply biding their time until they can take advantage of a power vacuum created by popular uprisings to which they don't mind lending aid since they know they can exploit them later.
You claim not to have forgotten what happened in Iran, but it sure looks like you have. So, once again: the Iranians tried popular uprisings too. As I said, there are a number of reasons why they were less successful than the Tunisians and hopefully the Egyptians.
And you'll note I wasn't trying to tell you that they were the vanguard, I was telling you that the majority was as always inbetween the two extremes. Not that you seem to read my posts, I really don't know why I bother...
The proof is in the pudding; if Tunisia and Egypt form free democratic governments I'll be the first to applaud, but that strikes me as a naïve hope founded on the notion that the US supported Mubarak because we're evil SOBs who like other evil SOBs. The truth is that Mubarak represented the US and many others making the best of a bad situation. If you want to say we had no business supporting any of the various brutal thugs contending for control of a foreign state I'll agree, but the truth is, one reason--IN ADDITION TO geopolitical ones--we did so was because since bloodshed couldn't be prevented supporting Mubarak meant less bloodshed than supporting any of his opponents. I see little real evidence that's changed, just a lot of wishful thinking.
The US supported Mubarak because they could sell him weapons and because he played nice with Israel, knowing full well that he was a SOB repressing his people. Just like they've supported plenty of other SOBs in the past, Saddam among them. I'm not some wide-eyed idealist who thinks an omelette can be made without breaking eggs, but I do think that when you do ugly things for good reasons, you should be man enough to admit you've done ugly things - and to live with the consequences.
/Media: Guardian's take on funny Americans' take on Egypt
- 03/02/2011 09:32:52 PM
1232 Views
I think you should replace "Fox" by "funny Americans". 
- 03/02/2011 09:44:26 PM
850 Views
- 03/02/2011 09:44:26 PM
850 Views
Pfft. Synonyms.
- 03/02/2011 09:46:42 PM
822 Views
Well, you'll get accusations and sour reactions anyway.
- 03/02/2011 09:50:28 PM
695 Views
Re: Well, you'll get accusations and sour reactions anyway.
- 03/02/2011 09:52:20 PM
861 Views
This is true. We'll just have to leave it to Glenn Beck to provide the poetry, now. *NM*
- 03/02/2011 09:54:59 PM
320 Views
Re: Pfft. Synonyms.
- 03/02/2011 09:51:30 PM
741 Views
Re: Pfft. Synonyms.
- 03/02/2011 09:52:56 PM
791 Views
Re: Pfft. Synonyms.
- 03/02/2011 09:56:34 PM
801 Views
That leads to the interesting question of how you define "anti-American".
- 03/02/2011 09:54:13 PM
763 Views
Re: That leads to the interesting question of how you define "anti-American".
- 03/02/2011 10:21:56 PM
819 Views
I think you should replace "funny Americans" with "blowhard pundits who don't deserve time of day" *NM*
- 04/02/2011 12:28:22 AM
312 Views
I posted earlier with observations on how idiotic Fox is sounding generally on the Egypt situation.
- 04/02/2011 02:15:23 AM
942 Views
I saw Guardian use the phrase balanced coverage and stopped
- 04/02/2011 06:20:31 PM
779 Views
You always do this.
- 05/02/2011 01:28:11 AM
802 Views
It is the irony I find funny
- 07/02/2011 04:03:38 PM
712 Views
That after watching that you think the GUARDIAN'S the one over the top here?
- 08/02/2011 04:02:04 PM
653 Views
sorry the Guardian is shit
- 08/02/2011 04:21:09 PM
761 Views
Maybe, but I'll need evidence; regardless, that's not what this is about, is it?
- 08/02/2011 04:48:06 PM
771 Views
Oh, is Beck a "socialism fan favor[ing] the violent dicator since he can bring order and subsidies"?
- 05/02/2011 08:04:17 AM
924 Views
So you are saying you have a lot in common with Glen Beck?
- 07/02/2011 04:04:41 PM
868 Views
Not really.
- 08/02/2011 03:46:10 PM
834 Views
it is easy to understand why Beck wants to defend Mubarak
- 08/02/2011 04:23:11 PM
2222 Views
By the Grace of God, Glenn Beck and Alex Jones do not represent America, or even most of the right.
- 05/02/2011 08:30:26 AM
831 Views
Did find this linked article at your link interesting:
- 05/02/2011 09:02:44 AM
999 Views
Been over all of this before, so I'll just point out that Lebanon is not Syria. *NM*
- 05/02/2011 07:20:10 PM
387 Views
*NM*
- 05/02/2011 07:20:10 PM
387 Views
Oops.... 
- 06/02/2011 12:03:27 AM
894 Views
- 06/02/2011 12:03:27 AM
894 Views
Gah. "Someone is wrong on the internet!", and all that, and I can't resist.
- 06/02/2011 12:34:59 AM
903 Views
I know that feeling well. 
- 06/02/2011 01:50:41 AM
774 Views
- 06/02/2011 01:50:41 AM
774 Views
Re: I know that feeling well.
- 06/02/2011 02:15:20 AM
918 Views
- 06/02/2011 02:15:20 AM
918 Views
America shouldn't take the blame for Fox! That's Rupert Murdoch's, the Aussie's, fault! *NM*
- 06/02/2011 03:16:04 AM
349 Views