Syria’s Suspension and the New Reality in Lebanon.

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Syrian protesters prevent Abdul-Aziz al-Khair, a member of the Syrian National Coordination Committee, second from left, and other opposition leaders from entering the Arab League headquarters where they were to hold talks with the organization’s chief on violence in Syria, in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011.

By Ghassan Karam

The reaction of the Syrian regime to the recently announced suspension of the Syrian membership by the Arab League reminds me of the story about the proud mother during a military parade who was jumping up and down with joy and yelling to whoever can hear her: “Please take a look and note how all the brigade is out of step with my Amer, bless his soul”J

A few months ago when the European Union announced a set of measures against Syria and some Syrian oligarchs in conjunction with Washington Mr. Al Moualem, the Syrian foreign affairs minister announced with bravado that Syria will act as if neither the US nor the EU are part of the world map. Two days ago the Syrians decided to erase another part of the world map; this time they said “Toz” to all the Arab countries. Russia and China have, so far, shown some lukewarm support for the Syrian regime although both countries have stressed that they expect Mr. Assad and his Syrian minions to stop the use of force and to implement genuine reforms immediately. Maybe it is time for the Syrians to dismiss another major chunk of the world map. It looks very highly likely that pretty soon the Syrian regime will operate in a shrunk world of its making composed of Iran, Venezuela and North Korea. Obviously they can always count on the unquestioned support of their Lebanese subordinates: Hezbollah, Amal, FPM, Marada, Talal Arslan and Wiam Wahab. The support of Mikati and Safadi will be ambiguousJ

The relatively wide official Lebanese support for the Baath killing machine is problematic at best. The Tower of Babel, better known as the Lebanese cabinet, is one more time trying to take a position and its opposite at the same time. The PM, Najib Mikati, has never tired of telling the world that Lebanon honours all its international obligations and will obviously pay its dues to the STL. Unfortunately he forgot to relay that message to the largest bloc in the cabinet, FPM, and the real power behind the throne Sayed Hassan Nasrallah.  Mr. Nasrallah, an unelected official who acts as the PM, Speaker and President ; all rolled into one; has declared a few days ago that as far as he is concerned the STL does not exist, as if reality is something subjective. (If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it then does it make a sound?) I guess not. If SHN decides not to see something then irrespective of the scientific proof that an entity exists Mr. Nasrallah feels that he can act as if it does not. Does the Emperor have cloths on or is he naked? Ask SHN or Bashar Assad before you answer that one. Their views are what counts, the truth be damned.

Then there is the Lebanese position Vis a Vis the decision of the Arab League to suspend Syrian membership. Lebanon dispatched its foreign minister to support the Syrian position and argue that Syrian demonstrators do not exist, the 3500 deaths of unarmed civilians are the fabrication of Western media, tanks and the full might of the Syrian armed forces have not been used against unarmed civilians in Homs, Hama, Dara, Latakia among numerous other places all across Syria.  But to top it all the Lebanese President, Michael Suleiman, himself elected unconstitutionally, called Bashar Assad to tell him that Lebanon did not vote for Syrian repression but only to protest the punishments being doled to SyriaJ What a joke. When would we ever learn that to take a position and its opposite simultaneously is a logically bankrupt exercise and what is more important that it is an insult to the intelligence of the public.

It is time to shout it from the hill tops. The Emperor has no cloths. This Lebanese cabinet is a sorry excuse for a government. Lebanon is ruled according to the diktats and personal whims of a certain unelected clergyman, Sayed Hassan Nasraalah, who does not recognize the right of Lebanon to sovereignty and independence. No one in this cabinet would dare take a position on important issues without seeking in advance the blessings of SHN. This charade has gone as far as it can. But what is equally clear is that the Syrian Baath has already lost even if, against all odds, it manages to stay in power. The minimum changes coming to Syria are a new constitution that does not recognize the Baath as a special party, free and popularly elected members of the parliament and a freely contested and elected president. Who would have even dared suggest such changes a few months ago? The new reality is that Syria will become more democratic, that all the Baath lackeys in Lebanon will have to adjust their vision to see the new reality including SHN.

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114 responses to “Syria’s Suspension and the New Reality in Lebanon.”

  1. antar2011 Avatar

    i hope that they do not stay in lebanon long enough to adjust their vision after the fall of the butcher next door.
    they desrve to be trial and rot in prison for the treachory they display for our beloved lebanon.

    these pple are still in power because the majority of the lebanese are too depressed to do anything about it…they are disgusted and they just give up on anything to do with lebanon.

    but this has to change or else we will loose lebanon for ever…it must change.

    a quick question to Mr Karam,
    what is your opinion in what will unfold next in syria and then in lebanon?…..we are hearing by twitter Harriri has plans..

    1. antar2011,
                    In a perfect world Lebanon would be able to exercise of sovereignty and evolve into a democratic state… But reality says that will be difficult unless our neighbours are democratic.  Once Syria starts its long march towards democracy Lebanon will become more assertive of the individual liberties of its citizens and hopefully will hold its MP’s to a higher standard than it does now.
                   Unfortunately I do not think that Mr. Hariri is the answer. He is too beholden to Saudi Arabia and many of his allies are part of the problem instead of being a solution. Lebanon needs to break away from “political feudalism” by rejecting the Jumblats, Karamis, Gemayels, Salams… We need young well informed responsible MP’s whose only allegiance is to the state and the common good.

      1. antar2011 Avatar

        i do not think Harriri is the answer too but i mentioned him because he claimed he had plans and i was hoping based on your own political analysis  if you might have any idea what those plans meant or likely to be.

        lebanon needs individuals who love Lebanon and work for it above any other interest, period. if Harriri  or any other individual does agree then welcome in the political arena, if they do not, then taking up a job in another domain can be a benefit for all.

        essentially we are on the same wave length bro.  

      2. antar2011 Avatar

        i do not think Harriri is the answer too but i mentioned him because he claimed he had plans and i was hoping based on your own political analysis  if you might have any idea what those plans meant or likely to be.

        lebanon needs individuals who love Lebanon and work for it above any other interest, period. if Harriri  or any other individual does agree then welcome in the political arena, if they do not, then taking up a job in another domain can be a benefit for all.

        essentially we are on the same wave length bro.  

  2.  Avatar

    i hope that they do not stay in lebanon long enough to adjust their vision after the fall of the butcher next door.
    they desrve to be trial and rot in prison for the treachory they display for our beloved lebanon.

    these pple are still in power because the majority of the lebanese are too depressed to do anything about it…they are disgusted and they just give up on anything to do with lebanon.

    but this has to change or else we will loose lebanon for ever…it must change.

    a quick question to Mr Karam,
    what is your opinion in what will unfold next in syria and then in lebanon?…..we are hearing by twitter Harriri has plans..

    1. antar2011,
                    In a perfect world Lebanon would be able to exercise of sovereignty and evolve into a democratic state… But reality says that will be difficult unless our neighbours are democratic.  Once Syria starts its long march towards democracy Lebanon will become more assertive of the individual liberties of its citizens and hopefully will hold its MP’s to a higher standard than it does now.
                   Unfortunately I do not think that Mr. Hariri is the answer. He is too beholden to Saudi Arabia and many of his allies are part of the problem instead of being a solution. Lebanon needs to break away from “political feudalism” by rejecting the Jumblats, Karamis, Gemayels, Salams… We need young well informed responsible MP’s whose only allegiance is to the state and the common good.

      1.  Avatar

        i do not think Harriri is the answer too but i mentioned him because he claimed he had plans and i was hoping based on your own political analysis  if you might have any idea what those plans meant or likely to be.

        lebanon needs individuals who love Lebanon and work for it above any other interest, period. if Harriri  or any other individual does agree then welcome in the political arena, if they do not, then taking up a job in another domain can be a benefit for all.

        essentially we are on the same wave length bro.  

  3. Patience2 Avatar

    The third sentence from the end should include ‘free tickets to anywhere for any Alawites”.  (Well, maybe not north Leb!)

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      No indeed … not the north … maybe Nastyrallah has room in a cave with ‘sensitive’ Iranian munitions.

      1. Patience2 Avatar

        Maybe the same cave where he’s living?

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          Dear Patience .. you read my mind. 🙂

  4.  Avatar

    The third sentence from the end should include ‘free tickets to anywhere for any Alawites”.  (Well, maybe not north Leb!)

    1.  Avatar

      No indeed … not the north … maybe Nastyrallah has room in a cave with ‘sensitive’ Iranian munitions.

      1.  Avatar

        Maybe the same cave where he’s living?

        1.  Avatar

          Dear Patience .. you read my mind. 🙂

  5. Two words in praise of this online article: Yalla and Bingo!!

  6. Two words in praise of this online article: Yalla and Bingo!!

  7. 5thDrawer Avatar

    Another good one Gassan. ‘Out of step’ indeed.

  8.  Avatar

    Another good one Gassan. ‘Out of step’ indeed.

  9. I say the UN should tell Bashar he and his boys have 48 hours to stop, or the bombs start falling on his head…..once the first few hit the ground, he will get the message….

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Better if it’s the Egyptians and Jordanians doing it … errr … was that a repeat? Are you anxious?? You can’t ‘tweet’ a war.

      1. Oh, yes, you cannot tweet a war, my friend, but if you only knew the REAL story…:)

      2. Oh, yes, you cannot tweet a war, my friend, but if you only knew the REAL story…:)

  10. I say the UN should tell Bashar he and his boys have 48 hours to stop, or the bombs start falling on his head…..once the first few hit the ground, he will get the message….

    1.  Avatar

      Better if it’s the Egyptians and Jordanians doing it …

      1. Oh, yes, you cannot tweet a war, my friend, but if you only knew the REAL story…:)

  11. MeYosemite Avatar

    Great article! I am so puzzled about these Lebanese politicians not being able to see an obvious end result, and at least for their own personal interests and how they would be mentioned in history, listed on the fascists side. Even someone with no soul would be back-paddling by now. Maybe they are truly not gifted, they should mandate IQ tests when electing leaders in Lebanon for their own benefit.

    Nassi is a fascist like the rest, we all can tell their future, but themselves are blind to it… What a pity.

    If Ba’ath is about to go, we have to keep an eye on SSNP which has grown in Syria with similar ambitions to Ba’ath.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Despots with some brains figure out a ‘back-door’ exit sooner. Megalomaniacs believe they will live forever and don’t need to.

  12.  Avatar

    Great article! I am so puzzled about these Lebanese politicians not being able to see an obvious end result, and at least for their own personal interests and how they would be mentioned in history, listed on the fascists side. Even someone with no soul would be back-paddling by now. Maybe they are truly not gifted, they should mandate IQ tests when electing leaders in Lebanon for their own benefit.

    Nassi is a fascist like the rest, we all can tell their future, but themselves are blind to it… What a pity.

    If Ba’ath is about to go, we have to keep an eye on SSNP which has grown in Syria with similar ambitions to Ba’ath.

    1.  Avatar

      Despots with some brains figure out a ‘back-door’ exit sooner. Megalomaniacs believe they will live forever and don’t need to.

  13. First of all, allow me to highlight the events that unfolded in the last few days.

    A total of 18 countries agreed to the suspension, beginning Wednesday. Only Syria, Lebanon and Yemen voted against, with Iraq abstaining.
    Tens of thousands protested the decision in Syria in the squares of Damascus, Aleppo, Raqqa, Lattakia, Tartous, Hasaka and Sweida, and there were attacks made on the Saudi Arabian, Qatari and Turkish consular facilities.
    For the most part, popular support for the Ba’athist regime of Bashir Assad in Damascus and other cities, despite its repressive character, is animated by fear of the alternative the installation of a sectarian Sunni Islamist regime that will persecute Alawites, Christians and other minorities, and the growing danger of foreign military intervention.
    The headline reason for the suspension of Syria from the Arab League a death toll in the conflict rising above 3,500 has no credibility. Not only are many of the despotic regimes that signed on to the resolution currently carrying out the brutal suppression of their own people, including host Egypt, but they are also directly involved in arming and organising the opposition movement.

    Syrian spokesmen, including Assad, have repeatedly insisted that the opposition movement is heavily sponsored and armed by foreign powers and did so again following the vote. Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Mikdad, said that terrorist groups within Syria “are being financed in an unofficial way by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan”. As a result of what was an armed uprising, he said, “Syria has lost more than 1,150 martyrs from the army and security forces.”
    A number of commentators have written candidly on what has been happening over the past months behind the scenes, leading up to and inspiring the Cairo decision. CNN’s Ben Wedeman dismissed the spurious notion that the assembled Arab leaders were “new converts to people powe as much as aging Arab autocrats fear their people, they also fear Iran.”
    Wedeman listed a series of actions by Washington that have strengthened Iran’s influence in the Middle East. These include the ousting of the Taliban, a Sunni movement bitterly opposed to Shia Iran, in Afghanistan; the deposing of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the region’s previous alternative power, and his replacement by a pro-Iranian government; and the disastrous Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
    “Against this backdrop is an across-the-board diminution of American power in the Middle East,” he warned. “Above and beyond regional issues, the US econom and thus, its political clou is in decline. In short, a huge vacuum looms in the region, and Iran could be the chief beneficiary.”
    This is the attraction of regime change in Syria, Iran’s chief ally, for the Arab states.
    It is also important for them to compete with growing Turkish influence in the Middle East. The Syrian National Council (SNC) was set up under Turkey’s auspices, and the Free Syrian Army, an exclusively Sunni group that claims 10,000 to 15,000 members, also has its operational base in Turkey.
    The SNC has two main groups, the Damascus Declaration, which is dominated by US-backed stooges, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey, Egypt and other Arab powers compete to exert influence on events through the Brotherhood. It opposes dialogue with the Assad regime. Not all its component parts support Western military intervention, but a great many do in the form of demands of a Libyan-style “no-fly zone”.
    There are also various Salafist groups close to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

    The Guardian on November 4 contained an analysis by Alastair Crooke, the British diplomat, MI6 officer and leading adviser to the UK and European governments: “Regime change in Syria is a strategic prize that outstrips Libya.”
    He noted a meeting this summer of a “senior Saudi official” who “told John Hannah, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, that from the outset of the upheaval in Syria, the king has believed that regime change would be highly beneficial to Saudi interests: ‘The king knows that other than the collapse of the Islamic Republic itself, nothing would weaken Iran more than losing Syria.’
    “This is today’s ‘great game’losing Syria. And this is how it is played: set up a hurried transitional council as sole representative of the Syrian people, irrespective of whether it has any real legs inside Syria; feed in armed insurgents from neighbouring states; impose sanctions that will hurt the middle classes; mount a media campaign to denigrate any Syrian efforts at reform; try to instigate divisions within the army and the elite; and ultimately President Assad will fall so its initiators insist.”
    Crooke, who is in a position to know, states that, after securing the agreement of President Nicolas Sarkozy for Syrian regime change, “Barack Obama followed by helping to persuade Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan already piqued at Assad to play the transitional council part on Syria’s border, and lend his legitimacy to the ‘resistance’.”
    While many commentators ackowledge that the decision by the Arab League could pave the way for military on Syria, similar to the one in Libya” and could also imply intent to attack Iran, ” most reject the possibility due to the danger that this would provoke regional war.
    Such apparrently “logical” reasoning is spurious. In Imperialist politics, just because something is “too terrible to contemplate” does not mean it will not happen.
    The Obama administration is as aware as CNN’s Wedeman of the declining global position of the US, hence the ramping up of its military and political interference in the Middle East as both a counter to and an effort to shape the “Arab Spring” in its interests. Regime change in Libya was the initial gambit in an ongoing effort to secure control of the oil riches of the Middle East and Central Asia region a prize the imperialist powers will pursue even at a cost of untold bloodshed.

    1. So you believe that Bashar was elected by the will of the Syrian people and democratically? Forget American influence and the imperialism and socialism and all those ”’isms for a minute and convince me how on earth is the Syrian Regime so legit?

      1. To answer your question yes neither Bashar nor any other Arab leader in Middle East is elected in a democratic way that also includes the countries in the Gulf who are now conspiring against the Syrian regime day and night.

        From the beginning, if the Syrian opposition movement were a real “secular” revolutionary alternative movement with strong working class agenda than I would have been the first to support them.
        In addition, the movenment in order to be legitimate and sincere must not allow  foreign powers meddling in the Syrian domestic politics.
        Instead we are witnessing the exact opposite. The movement is composed of reactionary elements which are financed and armed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia , Qatar and perhaps by Jordan. This is why I have become deeply worried about the ongoing events which in my opinion will never lead to stable democratic state becuase it is built on revenge mentality. I hope I have answered your question.

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          Gotta give it time, Sebouh. Seems everyone wants everything to happen with the speed of twittering twits. Real life doesn’t work that way. People living in ‘ether’ have their brains tied to ‘What I want should be Now because I can say this freely.’ The thumbs fly with self-importance … even here in a blog … which would actually take years to compile the thoughts OF into a book of philosophy. Books which no-one wants to read any more.
          To change the course of thought for millions of people requires time. We spent several thousand years getting to this point. Sometime you have to sit back and reflect – hopefully to try to understand what went wrong.
          But human psyche hasn’t changed as much as the techie stuff … humans are still humans.

          “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.” – Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut

        2. antar2011 Avatar

          lets just rewind events back for a bit and pause it on the first day of the revolution or perhaps even before that, the way the children were treated in Daraa after they wrote the graffiti on the wall.

          were they influenced by the CIA too?

          even if they were, if it wasn’t for the over reaction of the Assadi police then, this revolution would not have started.

          it is time to accept responsibility for all the barbaric retalliation to pple expressing their opinion in their own country.
          Syria is for the pple who are dying on the streets and who are bombed in their houses now. it is not God’s gift for Assad family only.
          if Assad had any atom of honour and true responsibility as a leader of a country, he should have acted much different then now….even if he is stupid enough to believe this is all CIA made.

        3. antar2011 Avatar

          lets just rewind events back for a bit and pause it on the first day of the revolution or perhaps even before that, the way the children were treated in Daraa after they wrote the graffiti on the wall.

          were they influenced by the CIA too?

          even if they were, if it wasn’t for the over reaction of the Assadi police then, this revolution would not have started.

          it is time to accept responsibility for all the barbaric retalliation to pple expressing their opinion in their own country.
          Syria is for the pple who are dying on the streets and who are bombed in their houses now. it is not God’s gift for Assad family only.
          if Assad had any atom of honour and true responsibility as a leader of a country, he should have acted much different then now….even if he is stupid enough to believe this is all CIA made.

    2. Ghassan Karam Avatar
      Ghassan Karam

      Sebouh,
                All of the above is true but it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the Arab uprisings. It appears that you are supporting to an extent the illogical Haikal hypothesis that the people all throughout the Arab world are pupets in the hands of the CIA. How silly, bankrupt, uncreative and nosensical. Even if it were true then I believe that we should thank the intelligence agencies who are allowing the masses to exopress themselves by getting rid of their butchers, exploiters and shameless dictators. Enough of those that think that they own a whole country and that they are the only ones who understand what its millions need. Down with dictators, oligarchs, authoritarian regimes all over the world. They won’t be missed.

      1. Hello Mr.Karam,To answer your question yes neither Bashar nor any other Arab leader in Middle East is elected in a democratic way that also includes the countries in the Gulf who are now conspiring against the Syrian regime day and night.From the beginning, if the Syrian opposition movement were a real “secular” revolutionary alternative movenment with strong working class agenda than I would have been the first to support them.In addition, the movement in order to be legitimate and sincere must not allow foreign powers meddling in the Syrian domestic politics.Instead we are witnessing the exact opposite. The movenment is composed of reactionary elements which are financed and armed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and perhaps by Jordan. This is why I have become deeply worried about the ongoing events which in my opinion will never lead to a stable democratic state becuase it is built on revenge mentality.

        1. Sebouh,
                      Your attempt to discredit the Arab revolutions/uporisings as disingenuous simply because you do not like them is a very weak argument. No one has ever asked you to approve of them. But and that is what is important you have no right to dictate to a people, any people the type of government that they are to choose. You have the right to disagree but never the right to tell them what to do except to be respectful of others. If the Afghani people want to elect democratically a conservative government then so be it. If the Syrians do not want to have a liberal government then so be it. But you cannot tell the Syrian people to stay under the rule and the boot of a butcher and a brutal dictator just becasue you do not happen to think that the alternative is liberal enough. The left has consistently taken that position and regrettably has always had to apologize for that. As I said once before, youir argument is not any different than the one that was used in 1991 to argue that the Russian people should have stayed under the Soviets.

        2. Again I’m sorry if I have sounded in a condescending manner. Mr.Karam, I’m just a humble guy stating my opinion not more not less.

          Off course, I have no right to dictate my opinion or ideology on others, but I have all the right to be apprehensive of the future.
          Especially after hearing a couple of disturbing slogans that I’m sure everyone knows which says Alawites to grave and Christians to Beirut.

      2. antar2011 Avatar

        yeslam temmak, spot on!
        i wish that some lebanese who buy this CIA crap to just wake up.
        it is frustrating how brainwashed they are.

        i suppose i do respect their opinion in believing an illogical but i am frustrated with their blind vision to apply the same idea on almost everything they disagree with…Enter Assadi foreign minister yesterday. *shakes head*

    3. Ghassan Karam Avatar
      Ghassan Karam

      Sebouh,
                All of the above is true but it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the Arab uprisings. It appears that you are supporting to an extent the illogical Haikal hypothesis that the people all throughout the Arab world are pupets in the hands of the CIA. How silly, bankrupt, uncreative and nosensical. Even if it were true then I believe that we should thank the intelligence agencies who are allowing the masses to exopress themselves by getting rid of their butchers, exploiters and shameless dictators. Enough of those that think that they own a whole country and that they are the only ones who understand what its millions need. Down with dictators, oligarchs, authoritarian regimes all over the world. They won’t be missed.

      1. Hello Mr.Karam,To answer your question yes neither Bashar nor any other Arab leader in Middle East is elected in a democratic way that also includes the countries in the Gulf who are now conspiring against the Syrian regime day and night.From the beginning, if the Syrian opposition movement were a real “secular” revolutionary alternative movenment with strong working class agenda than I would have been the first to support them.In addition, the movement in order to be legitimate and sincere must not allow foreign powers meddling in the Syrian domestic politics.Instead we are witnessing the exact opposite. The movenment is composed of reactionary elements which are financed and armed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and perhaps by Jordan. This is why I have become deeply worried about the ongoing events which in my opinion will never lead to a stable democratic state becuase it is built on revenge mentality.

        1. Sebouh,
                      Your attempt to discredit the Arab revolutions/uporisings as disingenuous simply because you do not like them is a very weak argument. No one has ever asked you to approve of them. But and that is what is important you have no right to dictate to a people, any people the type of government that they are to choose. You have the right to disagree but never the right to tell them what to do except to be respectful of others. If the Afghani people want to elect democratically a conservative government then so be it. If the Syrians do not want to have a liberal government then so be it. But you cannot tell the Syrian people to stay under the rule and the boot of a butcher and a brutal dictator just becasue you do not happen to think that the alternative is liberal enough. The left has consistently taken that position and regrettably has always had to apologize for that. As I said once before, youir argument is not any different than the one that was used in 1991 to argue that the Russian people should have stayed under the Soviets.

        2. Again I’m sorry if I have sounded in a condescending manner. Mr.Karam, I’m just a humble guy stating my opinion not more not less.

          Off course, I have no right to dictate my opinion or ideology on others, but I have all the right to be apprehensive of the future.
          Especially after hearing a couple of disturbing slogans that I’m sure everyone knows which says Alawites to grave and Christians to Beirut.

      2. antar2011 Avatar

        yeslam temmak, spot on!
        i wish that some lebanese who buy this CIA crap to just wake up.
        it is frustrating how brainwashed they are.

        i suppose i do respect their opinion in believing an illogical but i am frustrated with their blind vision to apply the same idea on almost everything they disagree with…Enter Assadi foreign minister yesterday. *shakes head*

  14.  Avatar

    First of all, allow me to highlight the events that unfolded in the last few days.

    A total of 18 countries agreed to the suspension, beginning Wednesday. Only Syria, Lebanon and Yemen voted against, with Iraq abstaining.
    Tens of thousands protested the decision in Syria in the squares of Damascus, Aleppo, Raqqa, Lattakia, Tartous, Hasaka and Sweida, and there were attacks made on the Saudi Arabian, Qatari and Turkish consular facilities.
    For the most part, popular support for the Ba’athist regime of Bashir Assad in Damascus and other cities, despite its repressive character, is animated by fear of the alternative the installation of a sectarian Sunni Islamist regime that will persecute Alawites, Christians and other minorities, and the growing danger of foreign military intervention.
    The headline reason for the suspension of Syria from the Arab League a death toll in the conflict rising above 3,500 has no credibility. Not only are many of the despotic regimes that signed on to the resolution currently carrying out the brutal suppression of their own people, including host Egypt, but they are also directly involved in arming and organising the opposition movement.

    Syrian spokesmen, including Assad, have repeatedly insisted that the opposition movement is heavily sponsored and armed by foreign powers and did so again following the vote. Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Mikdad, said that terrorist groups within Syria “are being financed in an unofficial way by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan”. As a result of what was an armed uprising, he said, “Syria has lost more than 1,150 martyrs from the army and security forces.”
    A number of commentators have written candidly on what has been happening over the past months behind the scenes, leading up to and inspiring the Cairo decision. CNN’s Ben Wedeman dismissed the spurious notion that the assembled Arab leaders were “new converts to people powe as much as aging Arab autocrats fear their people, they also fear Iran.”
    Wedeman listed a series of actions by Washington that have strengthened Iran’s influence in the Middle East. These include the ousting of the Taliban, a Sunni movement bitterly opposed to Shia Iran, in Afghanistan; the deposing of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the region’s previous alternative power, and his replacement by a pro-Iranian government; and the disastrous Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
    “Against this backdrop is an across-the-board diminution of American power in the Middle East,” he warned. “Above and beyond regional issues, the US econom and thus, its political clou is in decline. In short, a huge vacuum looms in the region, and Iran could be the chief beneficiary.”
    This is the attraction of regime change in Syria, Iran’s chief ally, for the Arab states.
    It is also important for them to compete with growing Turkish influence in the Middle East. The Syrian National Council (SNC) was set up under Turkey’s auspices, and the Free Syrian Army, an exclusively Sunni group that claims 10,000 to 15,000 members, also has its operational base in Turkey.
    The SNC has two main groups, the Damascus Declaration, which is dominated by US-backed stooges, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Turkey, Egypt and other Arab powers compete to exert influence on events through the Brotherhood. It opposes dialogue with the Assad regime. Not all its component parts support Western military intervention, but a great many do in the form of demands of a Libyan-style “no-fly zone”.
    There are also various Salafist groups close to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

    The Guardian on November 4 contained an analysis by Alastair Crooke, the British diplomat, MI6 officer and leading adviser to the UK and European governments: “Regime change in Syria is a strategic prize that outstrips Libya.”
    He noted a meeting this summer of a “senior Saudi official” who “told John Hannah, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, that from the outset of the upheaval in Syria, the king has believed that regime change would be highly beneficial to Saudi interests: ‘The king knows that other than the collapse of the Islamic Republic itself, nothing would weaken Iran more than losing Syria.’
    “This is today’s ‘great game’losing Syria. And this is how it is played: set up a hurried transitional council as sole representative of the Syrian people, irrespective of whether it has any real legs inside Syria; feed in armed insurgents from neighbouring states; impose sanctions that will hurt the middle classes; mount a media campaign to denigrate any Syrian efforts at reform; try to instigate divisions within the army and the elite; and ultimately President Assad will fall so its initiators insist.”
    Crooke, who is in a position to know, states that, after securing the agreement of President Nicolas Sarkozy for Syrian regime change, “Barack Obama followed by helping to persuade Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan already piqued at Assad to play the transitional council part on Syria’s border, and lend his legitimacy to the ‘resistance’.”
    While many commentators ackowledge that the decision by the Arab League could pave the way for military on Syria, similar to the one in Libya” and could also imply intent to attack Iran, ” most reject the possibility due to the danger that this would provoke regional war.
    Such apparrently “logical” reasoning is spurious. In Imperialist politics, just because something is “too terrible to contemplate” does not mean it will not happen.
    The Obama administration is as aware as CNN’s Wedeman of the declining global position of the US, hence the ramping up of its military and political interference in the Middle East as both a counter to and an effort to shape the “Arab Spring” in its interests. Regime change in Libya was the initial gambit in an ongoing effort to secure control of the oil riches of the Middle East and Central Asia region a prize the imperialist powers will pursue even at a cost of untold bloodshed.

    1. So you believe that Bashar was elected by the will of the Syrian people and democratically? Forget American influence and the imperialism and socialism and all those ”’isms for a minute and convince me how on earth is the Syrian Regime so legit?

      1.  Avatar

        To answer your question yes neither Bashar nor any other Arab leader in Middle East is elected in a democratic way that also includes the countries in the Gulf who are now conspiring against the Syrian regime day and night.

        From the beginning, if the Syrian opposition movement were a real “secular” revolutionary alternative movement with strong working class agenda than I would have been the first to support them.
        In addition, the movenment in order to be legitimate and sincere must not allow  foreign powers meddling in the Syrian domestic politics.
        Instead we are witnessing the exact opposite. The movement is composed of reactionary elements which are financed and armed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia , Qatar and perhaps by Jordan. This is why I have become deeply worried about the ongoing events which in my opinion will never lead to stable democratic state becuase it is built on revenge mentality. I hope I have answered your question.

        1.  Avatar

          Gotta give it time, Sebouh. Seems everyone wants everything to happen with the speed of twittering twits. Real life doesn’t work that way. People living in ‘ether’ have their brains tied to ‘What I want should be Now because I can say this freely.’ The thumbs fly with self-importance … even here in a blog … which would actually take years to compile the thoughts OF into a book of philosophy. Books which no-one wants to read any more.
          To change the course of thought for millions of people requires time. We spent several thousand years getting to this point. Sometime you have to sit back and reflect – hopefully to try to understand what went wrong.
          But human psyche hasn’t changed as much as the techie stuff … humans are still humans.

          “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.” – Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut

        2.  Avatar

          lets just rewind events back for a bit and pause it on the first day of the revolution or perhaps even before that, the way the children were treated in Daraa after they wrote the graffiti on the wall.

          were they influenced by the CIA too?

          even if they were, if it wasn’t for the over reaction of the Assadi police then, this revolution would not have started.

          it is time to accept responsibility for all the barbaric retalliation to pple expressing their opinion in their own country.
          Syria is for the pple who are dying on the streets and who are bombed in their houses now. it is not God’s gift for Assad family only.
          if Assad had any atom of honour and true responsibility as a leader of a country, he should have acted much different then now….even if he is stupid enough to believe this is all CIA made.

    2. Sebouh,
                All of the above is true but it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the Arab uprisings. It appears that you are supporting to an extent the illogical Haikal hypothesis that the people all throughout the Arab world are pupets in the hands of the CIA. How silly, bankrupt, uncreative and nosensical. Even if it were true then I believe that we should thank the intelligence agencies who are allowing the masses to exopress themselves by getting rid of their butchers, exploiters and shameless dictators. Enough of those that think that they own a whole country and that they are the only ones who understand what its millions need. Down with dictators, oligarchs, authoritarian regimes all over the world. They won’t be missed.

      1.  Avatar

        Hello Mr.Karam,To answer your question yes neither Bashar nor any other Arab leader in Middle East is elected in a democratic way that also includes the countries in the Gulf who are now conspiring against the Syrian regime day and night.From the beginning, if the Syrian opposition movement were a real “secular” revolutionary alternative movenment with strong working class agenda than I would have been the first to support them.In addition, the movement in order to be legitimate and sincere must not allow foreign powers meddling in the Syrian domestic politics.Instead we are witnessing the exact opposite. The movenment is composed of reactionary elements which are financed and armed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and perhaps by Jordan. This is why I have become deeply worried about the ongoing events which in my opinion will never lead to a stable democratic state becuase it is built on revenge mentality.

        1. Sebouh,
                      Your attempt to discredit the Arab revolutions/uporisings as disingenuous simply because you do not like them is a very weak argument. No one has ever asked you to approve of them. But and that is what is important you have no right to dictate to a people, any people the type of government that they are to choose. You have the right to disagree but never the right to tell them what to do except to be respectful of others. If the Afghani people want to elect democratically a conservative government then so be it. If the Syrians do not want to have a liberal government then so be it. But you cannot tell the Syrian people to stay under the rule and the boot of a butcher and a brutal dictator just becasue you do not happen to think that the alternative is liberal enough. The left has consistently taken that position and regrettably has always had to apologize for that. As I said once before, youir argument is not any different than the one that was used in 1991 to argue that the Russian people should have stayed under the Soviets.

        2.  Avatar

          Again I’m sorry if I have sounded in a condescending manner. Mr.Karam, I’m just a humble guy stating my opinion not more not less.

          Off course, I have no right to dictate my opinion or ideology on others, but I have all the right to be apprehensive of the future.
          Especially after hearing a couple of disturbing slogans that I’m sure everyone knows which says Alawites to grave and Christians to Beirut.

      2.  Avatar

        yeslam temmak, spot on!
        i wish that some lebanese who buy this CIA crap to just wake up.
        it is frustrating how brainwashed they are.

        i suppose i do respect their opinion in believing an illogical but i am frustrated with their blind vision to apply the same idea on almost everything they disagree with…Enter Assadi foreign minister yesterday. *shakes head*

    3. Sebouh,
                All of the above is true but it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the Arab uprisings. It appears that you are supporting to an extent the illogical Haikal hypothesis that the people all throughout the Arab world are pupets in the hands of the CIA. How silly, bankrupt, uncreative and nosensical. Even if it were true then I believe that we should thank the intelligence agencies who are allowing the masses to exopress themselves by getting rid of their butchers, exploiters and shameless dictators. Enough of those that think that they own a whole country and that they are the only ones who understand what its millions need. Down with dictators, oligarchs, authoritarian regimes all over the world. They won’t be missed.

  15. andre2011 Avatar

    What a Historical Shame. The Lebanese President and His Prime Minister, Mikati, Support Ali Saleh of Yamen and Bachar of Syria. It is a shame to the Lebanon and the Lebanese People. I believe that this Lebanese Authority gets its instructions from Iran. Not for a long Time and the Lebanese people will restore their pride and form a lebanese prime minister once the face of bachar appears on the first opage like that of Kadafi.

  16.  Avatar

    What a Historical Shame. The Lebanese President and His Prime Minister, Mikati, Support Ali Saleh of Yamen and Bachar of Syria. It is a shame to the Lebanon and the Lebanese People. I believe that this Lebanese Authority gets its instructions from Iran. Not for a long Time and the Lebanese people will restore their pride and form a lebanese prime minister once the face of bachar appears on the first opage like that of Kadafi.

  17. The other thing I want to share with the vewers is that the other day I found an excellent passage by Randolph Bourne who was an American progressive writer and “Leftist intellectual” during the days of World War 1.

    ‘To those of us who still retain an irreconcilable animus
    against war, it has been a bitter experience to see the unanim-
    ity with which the American intellectuals have thrown their
    support to the use of war-technique in the crisis in which
    America found herself. Socialists, College professors, publicists,
    new-republicans, practitioners of literature, have vied with
    each other in confirming with their intellectual faith col-
    lapse of neutality and the riveting of the war-mind on a
    hundred million more of the world’s people. And the intellec-
    tuals are not content with confirming our belligerent gesture.
    They are not complacently asserting that it was they who
    effectively willed it, against the hesitation and dim percep-
    tions of the American democratic masses. A war made delib-
    erately by the intellectional! A calm moral verdict reluctantly
    passed after a penetrating study of inexorable facts! Sluggish
    masses, too remote from the world conflict to be stired , too
    lacking in intellect to perceive their danger!

    This article was written by Randolph Bourne in 1917 “The War and the intellectuals”. Although it was written some 94 years ago the basic idea still remains resonant in todays world.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      Sebouh .. there are many great thoughts through the history of the human, which we forget often – sometimes conveniently, depending on our ‘wants’.
      “Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.” – Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)
      (Did he include religious authority in his thinking? …)
      “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
      (Hmmm .. that sounds ‘modern American’ … NOT. Americans give up a lot of freedoms to feel ‘safe’.)
      “ The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” — Cicero , 55 B.C.
      (Wow … a conservative from a ‘few’ years ago … 😉 Something more ‘modern’ perhaps? ….
      “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.” – Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903) (Sort of like laws putting helmets on motorcycle riders – let them figure it out)
      (Yet .. in only 60 years we have forgotten this one below it seems … or to be more correct, SOME have forgotten ..)
      “I have known war as few men now living know it. It’s very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.” – General Douglas MacArthur
      (And that from a man ‘of’ war. Imagine.)
      So … back again in time, and in considering the difference between ‘education’ which people generally have too little of as pertains to real life these days, and intellectual thought which some believe should always be considered superior ….
      “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
      I think Aristotle means it is better to consider all the ‘thoughts’, before making the dreadful decision to go by ‘passions’ alone and begin killing each other in massive numbers again. But people are lazy beasts and let the real educations slide away …

    2. Sebouh,
                 There is no connection whatsoever between what is going on in Syria and what the above almost century old quote is saying. Sorry about that.

      1. I know that this quote has absolutely no connection with the events in Syria.  The reason I stated it because I  felt that it kind of resembles todays world politics.

        Well contemporay example that comes to mind is the selling of the Iraq war by the administration of George W Bush through massive propaganda techniques which was  supported by the American Liberal Class. Again I’m sorry to all the viewers if I have diverted from the topic which is about Syria.

  18. The other thing I want to share with the vewers is that the other day I found an excellent passage by Randolph Bourne who was an American progressive writer and “Leftist intellectual” during the days of World War 1.

    ‘To those of us who still retain an irreconcilable animus
    against war, it has been a bitter experience to see the unanim-
    ity with which the American intellectuals have thrown their
    support to the use of war-technique in the crisis in which
    America found herself. Socialists, College professors, publicists,
    new-republicans, practitioners of literature, have vied with
    each other in confirming with their intellectual faith col-
    lapse of neutality and the riveting of the war-mind on a
    hundred million more of the world’s people. And the intellec-
    tuals are not content with confirming our belligerent gesture.
    They are not complacently asserting that it was they who
    effectively willed it, against the hesitation and dim percep-
    tions of the American democratic masses. A war made delib-
    erately by the intellectional! A calm moral verdict reluctantly
    passed after a penetrating study of inexorable facts! Sluggish
    masses, too remote from the world conflict to be stired , too
    lacking in intellect to perceive their danger!

    This article was written by Randolph Bourne in 1917 “The War and the intellectuals”. Although it was written some 94 years ago the basic idea still remains resonant in todays world.

    1. Sebouh,
                 There is no connection whatsoever between what is going on in Syria and what the above almost century old quote is saying. Sorry about that.

  19.  Avatar

    The other thing I want to share with the vewers is that the other day I found an excellent passage by Randolph Bourne who was an American progressive writer and “Leftist intellectual” during the days of World War 1.

    ‘To those of us who still retain an irreconcilable animus
    against war, it has been a bitter experience to see the unanim-
    ity with which the American intellectuals have thrown their
    support to the use of war-technique in the crisis in which
    America found herself. Socialists, College professors, publicists,
    new-republicans, practitioners of literature, have vied with
    each other in confirming with their intellectual faith col-
    lapse of neutality and the riveting of the war-mind on a
    hundred million more of the world’s people. And the intellec-
    tuals are not content with confirming our belligerent gesture.
    They are not complacently asserting that it was they who
    effectively willed it, against the hesitation and dim percep-
    tions of the American democratic masses. A war made delib-
    erately by the intellectional! A calm moral verdict reluctantly
    passed after a penetrating study of inexorable facts! Sluggish
    masses, too remote from the world conflict to be stired , too
    lacking in intellect to perceive their danger!

    This article was written by Randolph Bourne in 1917 “The War and the intellectuals”. Although it was written some 94 years ago the basic idea still remains resonant in todays world.

  20.  Avatar

    The other thing I want to share with the vewers is that the other day I found an excellent passage by Randolph Bourne who was an American progressive writer and “Leftist intellectual” during the days of World War 1.

    ‘To those of us who still retain an irreconcilable animus
    against war, it has been a bitter experience to see the unanim-
    ity with which the American intellectuals have thrown their
    support to the use of war-technique in the crisis in which
    America found herself. Socialists, College professors, publicists,
    new-republicans, practitioners of literature, have vied with
    each other in confirming with their intellectual faith col-
    lapse of neutality and the riveting of the war-mind on a
    hundred million more of the world’s people. And the intellec-
    tuals are not content with confirming our belligerent gesture.
    They are not complacently asserting that it was they who
    effectively willed it, against the hesitation and dim percep-
    tions of the American democratic masses. A war made delib-
    erately by the intellectional! A calm moral verdict reluctantly
    passed after a penetrating study of inexorable facts! Sluggish
    masses, too remote from the world conflict to be stired , too
    lacking in intellect to perceive their danger!

    This article was written by Randolph Bourne in 1917 “The War and the intellectuals”. Although it was written some 94 years ago the basic idea still remains resonant in todays world.

    1.  Avatar

      Sebouh .. there are many great thoughts through the history of the human, which we forget often – sometimes conveniently, depending on our ‘wants’.
      “Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.” – Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)
      (Did he include religious authority in his thinking? …)
      “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
      (Hmmm .. that sounds ‘modern American’ … NOT)
      “ The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” — Cicero , 55 B.C.
      (Wow … a conservative from a ‘few’ years ago … 😉 Something more ‘modern’ perhaps? ….
      “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.” – Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
      (Yet .. in only 60 years we have forgotten this one it seems … or to be more correct, SOME have forgotten ..)
      “I have known war as few men now living know it. It’s very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.” – General Douglas MacArthur
      (And that from a man ‘of’ war. Imagine.)
      So … back again in time, and in considering the difference between ‘education’ which people generally have too little of as pertains to real life these days, and intellectual thought which some believe should always be considered superior ….
      “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
      I think Aristotle means it is better to consider all the ‘thoughts’, before making the dreadful decision to go by ‘passions’ alone and begin killing each other in massive numbers again. But people are lazy beasts and let the real educations slide away …

    2. Sebouh,
                 There is no connection whatsoever between what is going on in Syria and what the above almost century old quote is saying. Sorry about that.

      1.  Avatar

        I know that this quote has absolutely no connection with the events in Syria.  The reason I stated it because I  felt that it kind of resembles todays world politics.

        Well contemporay example that comes to mind is the selling of the Iraq war by the administration of George W Bush through massive propaganda techniques which was  supported by the American Liberal Class. Again I’m sorry to all the viewers if I have diverted from the topic which is about Syria.

      2.  Avatar

        I know that this quote has absolutely no connection with the events in Syria.  The reason I stated it because I  felt that it kind of resembles todays world politics.

        Well contemporay example that comes to mind is the selling of the Iraq war by the administration of George W Bush through massive propaganda techniques which was  supported by the American Liberal Class. Again I’m sorry to all the viewers if I have diverted from the topic which is about Syria.

      3.  Avatar

        I know that this quote has absolutely no connection with the events in Syria.  The reason I stated it because I  felt that it kind of resembles todays world politics.

        Well contemporay example that comes to mind is the selling of the Iraq war by the administration of George W Bush through massive propaganda techniques which was  supported by the American Liberal Class. Again I’m sorry to all the viewers if I have diverted from the topic which is about Syria.

  21. A supreme ultimate dictator, Aoun “The Great” is the only answer.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      You’ll be the only guy bowing down to him Libnan … 🙂 But maybe that’s ‘the position’ he wants you in. 😉

      1. Funny 5th ….:). I think it will happen if he lives long enough. Lebanon and Syria’s maps are about to change dramatically. Good things are coming to our neighborhood …. 

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          Well .. I’ll pray with you on that … even if I think it’s a lot of smoke up a chimney. ‘Good’ seems a rare commodity.

  22.  Avatar

    A supreme ultimate dictator, Aoun “The Great” is the only answer.

    1.  Avatar

      You’ll be the only guy bowing down to him Libnan … 🙂 But maybe that’s ‘the position’ he wants you in. 😉

      1.  Avatar

        Funny 5th ….:). I think it will happen if he lives long enough. Lebanon and Syria’s maps are about to change dramatically. Good things are coming to our neighborhood …. 

        1.  Avatar

          Well .. I’ll pray with you on that … even if I think it’s a lot of smoke up a chimney. ‘Good’ seems a rare commodity.

  23. Regimes of this kind and those who support them do lose sight and touch with reality!They refuse,deny,threaten and warn!!Their main concern is to preserve their regime !To listen to the regime and those who support them is unbelievable!!They are so inconsistent and irrational!One day they accuse and insult and they second day they call for an emergency summit meeting!!They have lost all diplomacy,reason and direction!How many more cards do they have and how many more can they play!!!

    1. Fauzia,
                They do lose sight of reality and they exploit , torture and spread fear only becasue they do not trust the people. They are afraid of the people as they should be because at one point the people will rise and say we have had enough.

  24.  Avatar

    Regimes of this kind and those who support them do lose sight and touch with reality!They refuse,deny,threaten and warn!!Their main concern is to preserve their regime !To listen to the regime and those who support them is unbelievable!!They are so inconsistent and irrational!One day they accuse and insult and they second day they call for an emergency summit meeting!!They have lost all diplomacy,reason and direction!How many more cards do they have and how many more can they play!!!

    1. Fauzia,
                They do lose sight of reality and they exploit , torture and spread fear only becasue they do not trust the people. They are afraid of the people as they should be because at one point the people will rise and say we have had enough.

    2. Fauzia,
                They do lose sight of reality and they exploit , torture and spread fear only becasue they do not trust the people. They are afraid of the people as they should be because at one point the people will rise and say we have had enough.

  25. prophettt Avatar

    As Nobile as the cause of Syrian people who have gone out ( those who has done so peacefully) demanding freedom and democracy is, and as important as the number of people who went out in force protesting the decision by the Arab league to suspend Syria’s membership; It is becoming clear that the Syrian revolution has taken a sharp turn toward chaos, and possible military intervention by either NATO or the united states or other regional forces.
    It is also very important to take a note of who are the countries that are spearheading the cause of freedom and democracy; They are the king/dictator and future kings of Saudi Arabia, the other mini emirs and Sheiks of the gulf states, along with all the mini kings and big dictators of the Arab world. I don’t know whether to laugh or scream.
    This is not the Arab spring I had been dreaming of for years, nor is it the revolutions of Egypt and Tunisia which had all my support. I still have my worries about Egypt and Tunisia, especially when I read that the Saudi Crown prince is about to pay a visit to Mubarak in his jail cell. We know He would have never visited Kaddafi in his jail cell had He not been executed by his captures, nor would He visit Bashar if He ended up in jail.

    My support for the Syrian people and their demands of freedom and democracy has never been stronger, But I see where the extremist and the militants are taking Syria, where ever they are taking it, Syria will not end up free and democratic, but rather it will most likely be another Afghanistan. Those opposition groups who are seeking foreign military support to overthrow the Syrian dictators can only end up dictators themselves. If what we witnessed in Libya is what they wish for Syria, then the whole dream of a democratic Arab world is shattered. The execution of Qadafi, and the ugly images of him being lynched by angree armed men is still fresh. While Qadafi deserved to be executed for his crimes, but a due process and a fair trial should have set an example for the Libyans, and for the rest of the Arab dictators. The double standards of which the Arab league has dealt with in the Syrian case, makes me wonder why not Yemen, or Bahrain. It makes me wonder how can the world praise the league for its decision to suspend Syria’s membership when the whole effort is spearheaded by the most oppressive regimes in the Arab world. Whatever they are supporting, it cannot be the freedom and democracy of the Syrian people, but rather some revenge against a fellow dictator who defied them. Something is very wrong with this picture.

    1. I agree with your viewpoint.

    2. Prophet,
                 This is not the platform to rehash this issue at length but I am afraid that the “logic” of your argument is illogical 🙂 You have the right to be skeptical about the results of each and every one of these uprisings , as you should. But under no circumstances can you be against the regime tyranny, whether in Libya, Yemen, Syria or Bahrain and yet at the same time be seen as lending support to the exploiters and dictators. I believe that the best you can do in that circumstance is offer moral support in their fight against tyranny with the expectation that the new regime will be more liberal and more democratic. If it does not turn out to be that way then one would hope that the same forces that led to this uprising will also coalesce to throw the new dictatorship. One thing that you should be very careful about is to substitute your own personal preferences for the will of the people. Maybe I should make sure that I am clear on this point: you know very well that I do not agree with any of the ideas a, values and principles that HA stands for but I will be the first to accept them if they win the support of the majority in a free election. I cannot have a double standard: once I preach democracy then I must accept its results irrespective of whether I agree with them or not. When I say I accept them , I do not mean that I will reserve the right to disagree with them but I accept them as being an expression of the will of the majorirty. I feel strongly that it is wrong to prolong the life of a brutal dictatorship on the grounds that we think that the alternative will not be in line with our way of thinking. Hell I, I can tell you from know that probably I will disagree with all the new legislation in Libya, Tunis , Egypt and if this comes to pass in Syria and Yemen but that does not and must not diminish my enthusiasm for the downfall of the current dictators.

      1. prophettt Avatar

        Ghassan, It is so illogical and naive to believe that tyrants and dictators can be champions of democracy and freedom in other countries while they are oppressing their own people  at home. This can not be ignored.
         It is so illogical and so irresponsible not to be suspicious of such love for freedom and democracy by Arab tyrants  for  the Syrian people .It is also so illogical not to fear the chaos awaiting Syria  and the entire region as a result of a violent  overthrow  of the Assad regime,especially if other countries intervened  militarily. Those fears should not be misunderstood as support of Assad and his oppressive regime.You know where I stand on this one ,and I  have not,and will not, have a change of heart toward Assad or any tyrant.I simply distinguish between the majority of Syrian opposition who wanted peaceful protests and the  militants(who are being supported by foreign countries) who have their own agenda for the entire region.It pains me to see any religious party winning and ruling through elections,and I ,like you, have to accept that.But you and I know,that when they carry weapons,and resort to violence, they would reject any political process which is based on democracy and respect of other political views.
        I agree with you that Egypt and Tunisia  may not turn out to be ideal democratic states,but Any political reform is better than Mubarak and Bin Ali ,AND the same goes for Syria and Yemen. That being said, I still believe that foreign military intefernce to over throw Assad or any other tyrant is not going to result in any democracy.And having to wait another 40 years to overthrow the new tyrant can not be a promising solution either.
         Egyptian and Tunisian protesters did not seek military intervention by foreign countries, nor did they use guns and bombs  to overthrow their dictators. Indeed their instance on peaceful protest was their biggest weapons. In Syria  , from the first week, the militants took to the streets with their weapons.
        I always believed that the Muslim brotherhood may win the proposed Egyptian election,and I  will accept the result because I believe that when extremists accepts a democratic process, and participate in it, they would moderate their positions,and the country would be better off than having them work underground and use violence in order  to overthrow a regime.

        1. Again I agree with you Prophettt,

          What disgusts me most is the massive propaganda campaign that has become so widely discernible in most of our media stations.

          Probably every conflict is fought on at least two grounds: the battlefield and the minds of the people via propaganda. The “good guys” and the “bad guys” can often both be guily of misleading their peaple with distortions, exaggerations, subjectivity, inaccuracy and even fabrications, in order to recieve support and a sence of legitmacy.
          Take for example, the coverge style of Syrian uprising in Al Manar and NBN and compare it to LBCI and MTV and other small media outlets for the diaspora such as Now Lebanon and Ya Libnan, and you will no doubt find that what I’m saying has some element of truth.
          Finally, let me quote what great media critic Walter Lippmann said in this respect. “We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda and what said on our side at the front is truth and righteouness, the cause of humanity and a crusade of peace.

        2. 5thDrawer Avatar

          There is nothing ‘moderate’ about government by religion. And, remember, Hitler was elected. People can be idiots.

        3. 5thDrawer Avatar

          There is nothing ‘moderate’ about government by religion. And, remember, Hitler was elected. People can be idiots.

        4. Ghassan Karam Avatar
          Ghassan Karam

          Prophettt
                       Let me be blunt. You have no right whatsoever to justify oppression and bryutality on the basis that you do not like those that are supporting the freedom fighters. This is not about who is supporting whom but about a moral principal about humanitarian values about ethics about standards. Dictators and butchers cannot ever be supported  under any guise whatsoever. The best that you can say is to express your reservations about whether the fighters for liberty and freedom will ever live up to expectations but even if they do not so what. The dictator would have been taught a lesson, the proper bargain upheld. If the oppressees chose to become the oppressors then they will be also kicked out of office in due time.

        5. prophettt Avatar

          Ghassan,
           

          I do not justify brutality and oppression by any means .I’m surprised you even suggest that I did. If I let my emotions toward the Assads and their regime drive my thinking, I would have agreed with you.

          This comes down to the question of; Does the End Justify the Means? Does an oppressive  and brutal government have any moral rights and ethics to claim that it supports freedom of others? Can
          terrorists justify their violence based on this theory?  Again, You always taught us that principles
          are what really count, and in this case I ‘m afraid you are bypassing your own
          teachings, and overlooking all the dangerous signs written all over this seen.

          Moral principles and humanitarian values and ethics can only be claimed by those who live by such rules ,and by those who rule their own people by such standards. Otherwise it is 
          simply  hypocrisy of politics .  That being said, I hope that your right in
          this case, where the outcome would serve the goals and aspirations of the Syrian
           people. I won’t shed any tears on any tyrant,
          and especially on the Assads, who have the blood of some of my family on their
          hands,  and I hope the Syrians won’t shed
          tears for years to come as a result of more violent and oppressive regime
          replacing the Assads  and the Baath rule.
          That does not mean that He should stay, nor does it mean that the Syrians should
          not fight for their freedom.  A wolf can never claim to have  any moral sympathy  for sheeps who are being ripped by other wolfs.

        6. prophettt Avatar

          Ghassan,
           

          I do not justify brutality and oppression by any means .I’m surprised you even suggest that I did. If I let my emotions toward the Assads and their regime drive my thinking, I would have agreed with you.

          This comes down to the question of; Does the End Justify the Means? Does an oppressive  and brutal government have any moral rights and ethics to claim that it supports freedom of others? Can
          terrorists justify their violence based on this theory?  Again, You always taught us that principles
          are what really count, and in this case I ‘m afraid you are bypassing your own
          teachings, and overlooking all the dangerous signs written all over this seen.

          Moral principles and humanitarian values and ethics can only be claimed by those who live by such rules ,and by those who rule their own people by such standards. Otherwise it is 
          simply  hypocrisy of politics .  That being said, I hope that your right in
          this case, where the outcome would serve the goals and aspirations of the Syrian
           people. I won’t shed any tears on any tyrant,
          and especially on the Assads, who have the blood of some of my family on their
          hands,  and I hope the Syrians won’t shed
          tears for years to come as a result of more violent and oppressive regime
          replacing the Assads  and the Baath rule.
          That does not mean that He should stay, nor does it mean that the Syrians should
          not fight for their freedom.  A wolf can never claim to have  any moral sympathy  for sheeps who are being ripped by other wolfs.

    3. nagy_michael2 Avatar
      nagy_michael2

      Stop it Prophett you’re full of it. I read many of your comments and they’re smartly trying to protect Assad, Hezbollah and all M8 crappiolas. The people who are spearheading the march of freedom are the people of Daraa and the people who have suffered more than 40 years of aggression against from their own scum leaders. The leaders who have gobbled up all the money and barely give back anything to its own population. Golan as we saw an article was sold by Assad Grandfather and he never lifted a finger against Israel since then. stop protecting the resistance and Syrian regimes. you know very well what they have done against Lebanese and palestinians. these jackasses sending troops to kill doctors who are treating the protesters. they’re killing and breaking the bones of the wounded in the hospital. They walk the streets and shoot at people like animals. the hell with peacefull protest. I am christians and i hope the sunnis take over syria and march into Lebanon and take the eyeballs of your leader Hassan Nassarallah the biggest threat Lebanon ever face and ever will.

      1. prophettt Avatar

        nagy,
        It is your choice to turn this respectful debate into personal attacks,and divert this debate into issues relating to Iran and HA, but I   choose to stick to objective debate,and exchange of views without making judgments about you and your political objectives and affiliations.You are entitled to whatever you believe in,and I won’t take that away from you.
        Nothing in my previous comments ,smartly or not, translates into protection of Assad and his brutal regime,nor does it condone Iran’s behavior  or its political system.  As  a matter of fact,those who have followed my comments at this forum for the past two year, can testify to my opposition to ,and continuous criticism of its religious form of regime and all it stands for. I won’t ,and never will, attempt to seek the approval of any blogger by telling him/her what  suits his/her views.
        I don’t always agree with your views,but I will always respect your rights to express them,and believe in them.Tc

        Sebou,
        Arab media,including Lebanese media have always been part of every war or political conflict in the region. Unless you read between the lines, you can’t learn the truth. It takes more than just watching news and reading articles to get informed. As far as yalibnan, I only get tempted when Mr karam ,and few others who have earned my respect(although I disagree with them sometimes) post an article,otherwise, I stay away..As a reminder,I’m still banned from commenting on yalibnan ; I had to use another ID(with an extra t) to post comments. Until they decide to ban the new ID, I visit here and there.TC

    4. Worse could be said about Iran Spearheading “resistance” when It occupies Directly The three Islands (UAE), The Ahwaz( from Mahmmarah to Bandar Abbas) or its indirect occupation of Lebanon and Iraq By way of Proxy . Or Iraq (that did much more for resistance) while it was occupying Kuwait.

      While we are talking about double standard, what is the difference between the Syrian regime occupation of Lebanon Especially the North and the Israeli occupation of South? 

      Both Killed thousands, 
      Both levelled entire blocks, 
      Both planted mines, 
      Both kidnapped and both tortured
      Both attacked Palestinians
      Israelis + ouwet =  Sabrah Chatilla, 
      Assad + Amal (nasrallah was amal at time BTW) Sabra Shatilla Burj al barajneh and all West beirut

      There is so much more to be said, and when the regime falls, it will all come to the fore.
      The drugs the arms the smuggling the racketeering all will be revealed about all Regime allies especially the turbaned ones!

  26.  Avatar

    As nobile as the cause of Syrian people who went (those who did so peacefully) out demanding freedom and democracy is,and as important as the number of people who went out in force protesting the decision by the Arab leauge to suspend syria’s memebrship; It is becoming clear that the syrian revolution  has taken a sharp turn toward  chaos, and possible military interference by either NATO or the united states or other regional forces.
    It is also very important to take a note of who are the countries that are spearheading the cause of freedom and democracy ; They are the king/dictator and future kings of Saudi Arabia,the other mini emirs and Sheiks of the gulf states ,along with all the mini kings and big  dictators of the Arab world.I don’t know whether to laugh or scream.
    This is not the Arab spring I had been dreaming of for years, nor is it the revolutions of Egypt and Tunisia which had all my support.I still have my worries about Egypt and Tunisia,especially when I read that the Saudi Crown prince is about to pay a visit to Mubarak in his jail cell. We know He would have never visited Qadafi in his jail cell had He not been executed by his captures,nor would He visit Bashar if He ended up in jail. 

    My support for the Syrian people and their demands of freedom and democracy has never been stronger, But I see where the extremist and the militants are taking Syria, where ever  they are taking it, Syria will not end up free and democratic,but rather it will most likely  be another Afghanistan. Those opposition groups who are seeking foreign  military support to overthrow the Syrian dictators can only  end up  dictators themselves. If what we witnessed in Libya is what they wish for Syria, then the whole dream of a democratic Arab world is shattered. The  execution of Qadafi ,and the ugly images of him being lynched by angree armed men is still fresh.While Qadafi  deserved to be executed for his crimes,but a due process and a fair trial should have set an example for the Libyans,and for the rest of the Arab dictators.The double standards of which the Arab league has dealt with in the Syrian case, makes me wonder why not Yemen,or Bahrain. It makes me wonder how can the world praise the league for its decision to suspend Syria’s membership when the whole effort is spearheaded by the most oppressive regimes in the Arab world.  What ever they are supporting, it can not be the freedom  and democracy of the Syrian people,but rather some revenge against a fellow dictator who defied them.Something is very very wrong with this picture. 

    1.  Avatar

      I agree with your viewpoint.

    2.  Avatar

      I agree with your viewpoint.

    3. Prophet,
                 This is not the platform to rehash this issue at length but I am afraid that the “logic” of your argument is illogical 🙂 You have the right to be skeptical about the results of each and every one of these uprisings , as you should. But under no circumstances can you be against the regime tyranny, whether in Libya, Yemen, Syria or Bahrain and yet at the same time be seen as lending support to the exploiters and dictators. I believe that the best you can do in that circumstance is offer moral support in their fight against tyranny with the expectation that the new regime will be more liberal and more democratic. If it does not turn out to be that way then one would hope that the same forces that led to this uprising will also coalesce to throw the new dictatorship. One thing that you should be very careful about is to substitute your own personal preferences for the will of the people. Maybe I should make sure that I am clear on this point: you know very well that I do not agree with any of the ideas a, values and principles that HA stands for but I will be the first to accept them if they win the support of the majority in a free election. I cannot have a double standard: once I preach democracy then I must accept its results irrespective of whether I agree with them or not. When I say I accept them , I do not mean that I will reserve the right to disagree with them but I accept them as being an expression of the will of the majorirty. I feel strongly that it is wrong to prolong the life of a brutal dictatorship on the grounds that we think that the alternative will not be in line with our way of thinking. Hell I, I can tell you from know that probably I will disagree with all the new legislation in Libya, Tunis , Egypt and if this comes to pass in Syria and Yemen but that does not and must not diminish my enthusiasm for the downfall of the current dictators.

      1.  Avatar

        Ghassan, It is so illogical and naive to believe that tyrants and dictators can be champions of democracy and freedom in other countries while they are oppressing their own people  at home. This can not be ignored.
         It is so illogical and so irresponsible not to be suspicious of such love for freedom and democracy by Arab tyrants  for  the Syrian people .It is also so illogical not to fear the chaos awaiting Syria  and the entire region as a result of a violent  overthrow  of the Assad regime,especially if other countries intervened  militarily. Those fears should not be misunderstood as support of Assad and his oppressive regime.You know where I stand on this one ,and I  have not,and will not, have a change of heart toward Assad or any tyrant.I simply distinguish between the majority of Syrian opposition who wanted peaceful protests and the  militants(who are being supported by foreign countries) who have their own agenda for the entire region.It pains me to see any religious party winning and ruling through elections,and I ,like you, have to accept that.But you and I know,that when they carry weapons,and resort to violence, they would reject any political process which is based on democracy and respect of other political views.
        I agree with you that Egypt and Tunisia  may not turn out to be ideal democratic states,but Any political reform is better than Mubarak and Bin Ali ,AND the same goes for Syria and Yemen. That being said, I still believe that foreign military intefernce to over throw Assad or any other tyrant is not going to result in any democracy.And having to wait another 40 years to overthrow the new tyrant can not be a promising solution either.
         Egyptian and Tunisian protesters did not seek military intervention by foreign countries, nor did they use guns and bombs  to overthrow their dictators. Indeed their instance on peaceful protest was their biggest weapons. In Syria  , from the first week, the militants took to the streets with their weapons.
        I always believed that the Muslim brotherhood may win the proposed Egyptian election,and I  will accept the result because I believe that when extremists accepts a democratic process, and participate in it, they would moderate their positions,and the country would be better off than having them work underground and use violence in order  to overthrow a regime.

        1.  Avatar

          Again I agree with you Prophettt,

          What disgusts me most is the massive propaganda campaign that has become so widely discernible in most of our media stations.

          Probably every conflict is fought on at least two grounds: the battlefield and the minds of the people via propaganda. The “good guys” and the “bad guys” can often both be guily of misleading their peaple with distortions, exaggerations, subjectivity, inaccuracy and even fabrications, in order to recieve support and a sence of legitmacy.
          Take for example, the coverge style of Syrian uprising in Al Manar and NBN and compare it to LBCI and MTV and other small media outlets for the diaspora such as Now Lebanon and Ya Libnan, and you will no doubt find that what I’m saying has some element of truth.
          Finally, let me quote what great media critic Walter Lippmann said in this respect. “We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda and what said on our side at the front is truth and righteouness, the cause of humanity and a crusade of peace.

        2.  Avatar

          There is nothing ‘moderate’ about government by religion. And, remember, Hitler was elected too.

        3. Prophettt
                       Let me be blunt. You have no right whatsoever to justify oppression and bryutality on the basis that you do not like those that are supporting the freedom fighters. This is not about who is supporting whom but about a moral principal about humanitarian values about ethics about standards. Dictators and butchers cannot ever be supported  under any guise whatsoever. The best that you can say is to express your reservations about whether the fighters for liberty and freedom will ever live up to expectations but even if they do not so what. The dictator would have been taught a lesson, the proper bargain upheld. If the oppressees chose to become the oppressors then they will be also kicked out of office in due time.

        4.  Avatar

          Ghassan,
           

          I do not justify brutality and oppression by any means .I’m
          surprised you even suggest that I did. If I let my emotions toward the Assads
          and their regime drive my thinking, I would have agreed with you.

          This comes down to the question of Does the End Justify the Means? Does an
          oppressive  and brutal government have
          any moral rights and ethics to claim that it supports freedom of others? Can
          terrorists justify their violence based on this theory?  Again, You always taught us that principles
          are what really count, and in this case I ‘m afraid you are bypassing your own
          teachings, and overlooking all the dangerous signs written all over this seen.

          Moral principles and humanitarian values and ethics can only
          be claimed by those who live by such rules ,and by those who rule their own
          people by such standards. Otherwise it is 
          simply  hypocrisy of politics .  That being said, I hope that your right in
          this case, where the outcome would serve the goals and aspirations of the Syrian
           people. I won’t shed any tears on any tyrant,
          and especially on the Assads, who have the blood of some of my family on their
          hands,  and I hope the Syrians won’t shed
          tears for years to come as a result of more violent and oppressive regime
          replacing the Assads  and the Baath rule.
          That does not mean that He should stay, nor does it mean that the Syrians should
          not fight for their freedom.  A wolf can never claim to have  any moral sympathy  for sheeps who are being ripped by other wolfs.

    4. Prophet,
                 This is not the platform to rehash this issue at length but I am afraid that the “logic” of your argument is illogical 🙂 You have the right to be skeptical about the results of each and every one of these uprisings , as you should. But under no circumstances can you be against the regime tyranny, whether in Libya, Yemen, Syria or Bahrain and yet at the same time be seen as lending support to the exploiters and dictators. I believe that the best you can do in that circumstance is offer moral support in their fight against tyranny with the expectation that the new regime will be more liberal and more democratic. If it does not turn out to be that way then one would hope that the same forces that led to this uprising will also coalesce to throw the new dictatorship. One thing that you should be very careful about is to substitute your own personal preferences for the will of the people. Maybe I should make sure that I am clear on this point: you know very well that I do not agree with any of the ideas a, values and principles that HA stands for but I will be the first to accept them if they win the support of the majority in a free election. I cannot have a double standard: once I preach democracy then I must accept its results irrespective of whether I agree with them or not. When I say I accept them , I do not mean that I will reserve the right to disagree with them but I accept them as being an expression of the will of the majorirty. I feel strongly that it is wrong to prolong the life of a brutal dictatorship on the grounds that we think that the alternative will not be in line with our way of thinking. Hell I, I can tell you from know that probably I will disagree with all the new legislation in Libya, Tunis , Egypt and if this comes to pass in Syria and Yemen but that does not and must not diminish my enthusiasm for the downfall of the current dictators.

    5.  Avatar

      Stop it Prophett you’re full of it. I read many of your comments and they’re smartly trying to protect Assad, Hezbollah and all M8 crappiolas. The people who are spearheading the march of freedom are the people of Daraa and the people who have suffered more than 40 years of aggression against from their own scum leaders. The leaders who have gobbled up all the money and barely give back anything to its own population. Golan as we saw an article was sold by Assad Grandfather and he never lifted a finger against Israel since then. stop protecting the resistance and Syrian regimes. you know very well what they have done against Lebanese and palestinians. these jackasses sending troops to kill doctors who are treating the protesters. they’re killing and breaking the bones of the wounded in the hospital. They walk the streets and shoot at people like animals. the hell with peacefull protest. I am christians and i hope the sunnis take over syria and march into Lebanon and take the eyeballs of your leader Hassan Nassarallah the biggest threat Lebanon ever face and ever will.

      1.  Avatar

        nagy,
        It is your choice to turn this respectful debate into personal attacks,and divert the debate into other issues relating to Iran and HA, but I   choose to stick to objective debate,and exchange of views without making judgments about you and your political objectives and affiliations.You are entitled to whatever you believe in,and I won’t take that away from you.

        Nothing in my previous comments ,smartly or not, translates into protection of Assad and his brutal regime,nor does it condone Iran’s behavior  or its political system.  As  a matter of fact,those who have followed my comments at this forum for the past two year, can testify to my opposition ,and continuous criticism to its religious form of regime and all it stands for. I won’t ,and never will, attempt to seek the approval of any blogger by telling him/her what  suits his/her views.
        I don’t always agree with your views,but I will always respect your rights to express them,and believe in them.Tc

    6.  Avatar

      Worse could be said about Iran Spearheading “resistance” when It occupies Directly The three Islands (UAE), The Ahwaz( from Mahmmarah to Bandar Abbas) or its indirect occupation of Lebanon and Iraq By way of Proxy . Or Iraq (that did much more for resistance) while it was occupying Kuwait.

      While we are talking about double standard, what is the difference between the Syrian regime occupation of Lebanon Especially the North and the Israeli occupation of South? 

      Both Killed thousands, 
      Both levelled entire blocks, 
      Both planted mines, 
      Both kidnapped and both tortured
      Both attacked Palestinians
      Israelis + ouwet =  Sabrah Chatilla, 
      Assad + Amal (nasrallah was amal at time BTW) Sabra Shatilla Burj al barajneh and all West beirut

      There is so much more to be said, and when the regime falls, it will all come to the fore.
      The drugs the arms the smuggling the racketeering all will be revealed about all Regime allies especially the turbaned ones!

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