The Hezbollah coup in Lebanon

Joseph Farah
WordNetDaily
May 23, 2008

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65016

I've been waiting for someone else to explain what happened in Lebanon in the last week.
But I guess that grim responsibility falls to me.

Hezbollah has effectively taken over control of the reins of power in Lebanon in a military coup.
I know you haven't heard it explained this way before. But that is precisely what happened – as the U.S. and Israel stood by and watched.

For all intents and purposes, Iran now has a new power base right over Israel's northern border in what was formerly the one Christian country in the Middle East.

Here's how it happened: Slowly but surely over many years, Hezbollah, the Iranian-directed terrorist organization, built up its militia forces in Lebanon, eventually becoming the largest military force in the country. Beginning about 18 months ago, Hezbollah sent its operatives into the streets of Beirut, occupying much of the capital city and disrupting business as usual in a country that scarcely remembers what business as usual means.

Then, in recent days, Hezbollah stepped up the pressure on the Lebanese government by launching an armed military takeover of mostly Sunni West Beirut, easily defeating pro-government militia forces in a single night of firefights.

Outgunned and outmanned, the Lebanese army had little chance to disarm the Hezbollah militias as it was ordered to do by Lebanon's leadership.

Lebanese officials were probably hoping and praying they might get some backing from the U.S. or Israel. But the U.S. is still bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is little political will to get involved in another Middle East front. And Israel, whose prime minister is battling corruption charges and clinging tenuously to power, has frankly lost the political will to get involved in yet another Lebanon war.

So, Lebanon, once the jewel of the Middle East, has fallen to the Shiite terrorist barbarians who are certain to use the country as a major base of operations against Israel and against the U.S.
These are the incredible concessions won by Hezbollah through military intimidation of the Lebanese: Iran's proxy gets to dictate which leader will be elected by the Lebanese Parliament as president. His name is Gen. Michel Suleiman, the current head of the Lebanese army. But, as you might guess, Suleiman will be little more than a figurehead. The new government constituted will give Hezbollah a majority of seats, ensuring the terrorists can veto any initiatives by the president or anyone else.

That means there can be no efforts organized to disarm Hezbollah. It will remain the strongest military force in the country, as well as the strongest political force.

That was the price of "peace" in Lebanon – an agreement applauded by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who seems more inept by the day.

"We call upon all Lebanese leaders to implement this agreement in its entirety," she said in an official statement.

Is she joking? What happened to the war on Islamic terrorism? Doesn't she know Hezbollah is the largest and most dangerous Islamic terror organization in the world? Doesn't she remember these thugs were responsible for the cold-blooded murder of 244 U.S. Marines? Hasn't she heard Hezbollah has an operational alliance with al-Qaida, the murderers of 3,000 Americans? Doesn't the Bush administration recognize the strategic and political importance of Lebanon? Iran surely does.

Why would U.S. officials be so eager to see the results of this military coup by Hezbollah "implemented in its entirety"?

Hezbollah and Iran have only one goal in Lebanon – total hegemony, total submission by all of the diverse ethnic and religious factions to its radical Shiite, anti-Israel and anti-U.S. agenda.
As the grandson of a Christian Lebanese immigrant to the U.S., as an American, as a freedom lover, it pains me to see this kind of capitulation.

Didn't President Bush just return from the Middle East where he warned against the dangers of appeasement?