Who cannot been inspired by the demonstrations in Beirut today? Will this be the next Ukraine? We don’t know yet, of course, but Bashar & Company cannot be happy.
MEANWHILE: Lebanons pro-Syrian government has resigned! Of course to CNN the big news is still the suicide-bombing in Iraq. How obvious can they get?!
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14 Comments
1. Stephen_M:FoxNews - Live from Beirut. CNN - Bad news in Iraq.
Feb 28, 2005 - 9:14 am 2. Lola:The speed is simply astounding. And now the entire government has resigned. Now that really takes the wind out of Syria. They must be running around frantically trying to figure out what to do. They can’t very well start up their tanks and march into Beirut to restore orders because they’ll have to deal with people standing in front of the tanks.
Feb 28, 2005 - 9:20 am 3. Bruce W.:IMHO this will prove to be an historic day.
So glad to be with you all witnessing freedom’s ongoing march (gallop?). What I would give to be a fly on the wall of Mini-Assad’s office right now! Heal soon need assistance from someone of hiw own medical background as his eyes bulge out of his head in futile fury.
Peace to the souls of those butchered today in Iraq and a speedy recovery to the injured.
Feb 28, 2005 - 9:42 am 4. Bruce W.:“He’ll”, not “Heal”, of course. Interesting error though.
Feb 28, 2005 - 9:43 am 5. utron:Man, things are beginning to move fast! This really is beginning to remind me of 1989. I’ll just go into my standard wet-blanket mode long enough to note that I hope wonderful news in Lebanon and only slightly less wonderful news in Syria doesn’t distract Bush&Co. from the grim situation in Iran. It’s going to take some tricky maneuvering to stymie the mullahs’ nuclear program and get rid of their regime without getting into a very dubious military situation (and I’m speaking as someone who wholeheartedly supported our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq).
If Bush can pull off the hat trick in Iran, he’ll have earned a place on Mt. Rushmore. Heck, they could give him his own memorial and carve his face on El Capitan.
Feb 28, 2005 - 9:54 am 6. Stephen_M:BushHitler’s dark forces on the Syria-Iraq border had nothing to do with this. When Republicans are in the White House non-democratic governments can only fail by collapsing of their own weight.
Feb 28, 2005 - 9:57 am 7. PJ:What’s happening in the ME these days is akin to the American Revolution!
Feb 28, 2005 - 11:03 am 8. Charlie (Colorado):How obvious can they get?!
Pretty goddamn obvious.
Sadly.
Feb 28, 2005 - 12:29 pm 9. Terrye:The Syrian military is still in Lebanon. I hope they just leave. Assad’s father would have mowed those people down. I hope to God the son is not like the father.
Feb 28, 2005 - 12:50 pm 10. Duke:Well, it depends what channel you are watching. E has some whining Oscar losers, CNN ditto, MSNBC is covering the impending snowstorm, and FOX has the business news. It is very hard to get instant news on TV. New York Times has it as their lead story right now, the WaPo has it on front page with big picture, and LA Times has it lead front page with big picture. Time 1:50 PST
Feb 28, 2005 - 1:52 pm 11. Edouard_G:Terrye — I find it hard to believe that the Syrian military will just leave. They will have to be forced out IMO. The region’s news has been nothing but terrible from Syria’s perspective lately, and its Lebanon-based troops are about part of the little that currently remains of their rapidly diminishing power in the region.
Keep in mind that for Syria, the two-sided Israeli-Palestinian cease fire comes as bad news. Whatever Syria can do to disrupt that cease-fire, it will try to do to keep itself in the game with a bargaining chip. It’s good for Syria if Israeli blood is being shed and battles between Israel and the Palestinians are going on, because that keeps Syria in a position to inject itself into any projected peace process. However, this time around, Assad is on the outside looking in. Syria wants Israeli-occupied Golan Heights back in the worst way, but it will be treated like an ugly stepsister in that effort whenever Abbas & Sharon as a closed two-sided bargaining unit are talking peace.
Syria must at this point see little option but to persist in relying upon Hezbollah or Hezbollah’s offshoots to do its very dirty work, which looks currently very bad for them internationally, obviously. Now Syria is being leaned on by the United States and the pressure is enormous — as witness its caving in to hand over Saddam’s half-brother, looks to me like a pressure-relief move but it is an insufficient one. Truly Syria’s list of self-assertive options grows very thin at this point.
Feb 28, 2005 - 2:26 pm 12. Terrye:Edouard:
I hope no one has to die, but I guess that is asking for too much.
Feb 28, 2005 - 2:44 pm 13. Mike_Nargizian:John Loftus is on John Batchelor’s radio program every night for 30 minutes, 10:30-11:00pm EST.
http://www.wabcradio.com/showdj.asp?DJID=9178
He’s also on Fox News Sunday morning every week with Eric Sean, who also appears on the radio.
His bio is very interesting - http://john-loftus.com/
Him and Batchelor supposedly have some clearance to intel info most don’t but will only talk about that which is already public knowledge. Loftus’s favorite line on Syria, is it would take us 20 minutes, 15 to roll the tanks into Damascus and 5 minutes to stop laughing.
The whole entire play of the last few months has been to corner Syria, the Jr partner to the terror mastern Iran, but where every terrorist organization is openly listed in the phone book.
If nothing else, this cease fire corners Syria… now even the Euroweenies have to consent to us pressuring them if they screw up the cease fire with violent acts. The idiocy that Syria displayed in Lebanon was that of a cornered animal biting back. And that move came back to bite them in the a** is the worst way.
Syria isn’t happy about the ‘peace’ process being restarted, but they’re unbelievably worried that its proceeding while Lebanon is about to uprise against them. The ONLY playing card they have to offer is leaving Lebanon, dampening down Hezballah (lol!), and controlling Islamic Jihad.
All of those are going to proceed without them… and without Lebanon, they GOT NOTHING.
Assad is on the radar he’s been outmaneuvered by Bush and especially Sharon.
I am willing to bet then years later when all the info behind the scenes is known, that Sharon has once again outsmarted and outtoughed the Arabs.
A General thinks based on WHAT IS not what he wants the situation to be.
Bush thinks the same way and both are unafraid to take heat and risk in politics and in war, not that they’re that different.
Mike
PS Did you read the Haaretz article on Sharon, Bibi, Peres and the late King Hussein?
Feb 28, 2005 - 4:20 pm 14. richard mcenroe:SO where is Sixth Fleet right now?
Feb 28, 2005 - 9:41 pm