On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 2:05 PM, Jerry Milo Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > > You really don't think the assassination of the leader of a party 5 years > ago has an impact on future elections, including this year's? > > (And the elder Hariri was by far not the only politician killed in that > time, and the number who quit after specifically being threatened is well > documented).
Of course it did. And the government also waged war on Hezbollah many times and killed plenty of their leaders. I would agree that the situation 6 years ago was almost certainly a flat out assassination and that the current Hezbollah-backed government is doing everything in it's power to prevent the commission from fully investigating it. However, you have to also put this on the background of the fact that there has been a long running civil war in Lebanon. Sometimes it has had flare ups that have turned into active periods of war. Other times it has gone several years at a time with lower level skirmishes. There is a whole lot I don't know about Lebanon, but I can say with relative certainty that the battles between Hezbollah and anti-Hezbollah groups have been going on for a long time and you cannot pin the current situation solely on Hezbollah and say that the bombing 6 years ago is the only issue. > I think any political party would love the advantage that Hezbollah has > garnered over the past few years with its lack of hesitation to use > violence. Not willing to use violence themselves, mind you, but the > advantages are clear. This is also a matter of how the various religious groups population demographics break down. Sunni and Shiites and Christians are almost equally split up, in thirds, and Suunis and Shiites each have major governmental posts (like Prime Minister) that can only go to a member of that sect. It is really, really complicated in Lebanon and I think you are trying to simplify it way too much. > I agree that Hezbollah is the current government of Lebanon. And as such, > and being a terrorist organization, our policy for a change is amazingly > clear and obvious. > > But I cannot say they are a legitimate government, no more than Egypt was, > or any white politician in the South during the Jim Crow era. I don't have any affection for Hezbollah but when it comes to foreign policy, I tend to believe that we ought to work with the government in power. We may not like it, at all, but a Hezbollah-backed leader has formed a new government under the rules that in place in the parliamentary system of government. They didn't violently overthrow the government. Should the bombing 6 years ago be investigated? Yes and we should keep pressing for that to happen regardless of the government. But the government is still the government even if you don't like them. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:334539 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
