[News] Juan Cole: Huge pro-Syrian demonstration in Lebanon
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News at freedomarchives.org
Wed Mar 9 11:18:00 EST 2005
<http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/11085203.htm>Hizbullah's
call for a huge pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut was answered by hundreds
of thousands of protesters on Tuesday. The largely Shiite crowds were huge
compared to the smaller anti-Syrian demonstrations held for the past week.
The anti-Syrian protesters had mostly been Christians, with some Druze and
Sunnis. But Lebanon is probably only now 20 percent Maronite Christian (the
most anti-Syrian group), and may be as much as 40 percent Shiite.
The simplistic master narrative constructed by the partisans of President
George W. Bush held that the January 30 elections were a huge success, and
signalled a turn to democracy in the Middle East. Then the anti-Syrian
demonstrations were interpreted as a yearning for democracy inspired by the
Iraqi elections.
This interpretation is a gross misunderstanding of the situation in the
Middle East. Bush is not pushing with any real force for democratization of
Saudi Arabia (an absolute monarchy) or Pakistan (where the elected
parliament demands in vain that General Pervez Musharraf take off his
uniform if he wants to be president), or Tunisia (where Zayn Ben Ali has
just won his 4th unopposed term as president), etc. Democratization is
being pushed only for regimes that Bush dislikes, such as Syria or Iran.
The gestures that Mubarak of Egypt made (officially recognized parties may
put up candidates to run against him, but not popular political forces like
the Muslim Brotherhood) are empty.
In fact the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections were deeply flawed. 42 percent of the
electorate did not show up. The elections could only be held by locking
down the country for 3 days, forbidding all vehicular traffic to stop car
bombings. The electorate had no idea for whom they were voting, since the
candidates' names were secret until the last moment. The Sunni Arabs
boycotted or were prevented from voting by the ongoing guerrilla war, which
started right back up after the ban on traffic lapsed.
The Lebanese have been having often lively parliamentary election campaigns
for decades. The idea that the urbane and sophisticated Beirutis had
anything to learn from the Jan. 30 process in Iraq is absurd on the face of
it. Elections were already scheduled in Lebanon for later this spring.
Moreover, the anti-Syrian protests were not a signal that the Lebanese
wanted to be like American-occupied Iraq. They were a signal that the
Druze, Maronites and a section of the Sunnis had agreed to try to push
Syria out. It was the US who had invited Syria into Lebanon in 1976. And it
was a sign that Lebanon is still deeply divided, since the Shiite plurality
largely supports Syria. Given the pro-Syrian sentiment in some Sunni cities
like Tripoli, it may well be that a majority of Lebanese want Syria to
remain in some capacity. If that were true, what would it do to Mr. Bush's
master narrative of the march of democracy?
The main exhibit for the relevance of Iraq to Lebanon is Druze warlord
Walid Jumblatt's statement to the Washington Post: "It's strange for me to
say it, but this process of change has started because of the American
invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people
voting, eight million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world."
It is highly unlikely that Jumblatt is sincere in this statement. He has
seen Lebanese vote for parliament several times, and has campaigned, and
Iraq was nothing new to his experience (like Lebanon, it is occupied by a
foreign military power even during its elections).
It is worth recalling Jumblatt's stance on Iraq and Paul Wolfowitz (for
more on whom, see below):
November 19, 2003
US annuls visa for Lebanese politician who regretted Wolfowitz survived
BEIRUT, Nov 19 (AFP)
A leading Lebanese politician said Wednesday his US visa had been annulled
after he expressed regret that US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
was unhurt in a Baghdad rocket attack.
Walid Jumblatt, an MP who is leader of Lebanon's Druze community, told AFP
he had "received from the US embassy in Beirut a letter saying that the
visa -- valid until 2007 -- has been cancelled" . . .
According to a letter sent by the US State Department to Jumblatt and
published by Al-Mostaqbal newspaper, the visa was withdrawn as it "cannot
be given to a foreigner who uses a privileged position to express his
support for terrorist activity, tries to convince others of such support or
supports a terrorist organisation."
On October 27, Jumblatt described Wolfowitz as a "microbe" in comments that
were described as "unacceptable" by the United States but were not
condemned by the Lebanese government.
"We hope the firing will be more precise and efficient (next time), so we
get rid of this microbe and people like him in Washington who are spreading
disorder in Arab lands, Iraq and Palestine," Jumblatt said.
One US soldier was killed and 17 other people were wounded in late October
when a volley of rockets was fired at the Rashid hotel in Baghdad that
houses US military and other staff and where Wolfowitz had been staying.
But despite the cancellation of his visa, Jumblatt remained defiant on
Wednesday.
"I am sticking to my position, I refute ... America's imperialist policy,"
he told France's RFI radio in an interview.
He also accused the United States of causing "chaos" in Iraq and putting a
"puppet government" in place in Baghdad.
"They (the United States) will now continue the repression of the Iraqi
people who are rejecting them," he added."
I guess now that Jumblatt sees a way of getting the Syrians out of Lebanon
by allying with Bush, all of a sudden America is no longer an imperialist
cause of chaos. People who want to believe that remind me of PT Barnum's
dictum that one is born every minute.
posted by Juan @
<http://www.juancole.com/2005/03/hundreds-of-thousands-of-shiites-stage.html>3/9/2005
06:24:00 AM
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