The Washington Pravda (a.k.a. the Washington Post) just published an article entitled “Fighting in Beirut Threatens a Top Bush Administration Priority”. Carefully wrapped into a lot of Neocon bull, there are some interesting admissions in this piece. Judge for yourself: (Pravda text in italics)
On the eve of his trip to the Middle East next week, President Bush faces the collapse of one of his three top priorities in the region — stabilizing Lebanon, a rare Arab democracy — amid new fighting that once again pits the United States against Iran and Syria through surrogates, according to Lebanese and U.S. analysts.
Yes, bye-bye “Cedar Revolution”! Witness the birth of a new Middle-East indeed, but not quite the one the Neocons envisioned.
The Bush administration has spent $1.3 billion over the past two years to prop up Siniora’s government, with about $400 million dedicated to boosting Lebanon’s security forces. But Washington’s assistance has been put in check by Hezbollah — the Shiite militia trained, armed and financed by Iran and Syria — which has the Siniora government under virtual siege.
Typical American approach: throw money at a problem and expect it to take care of itself. But now it becomes painfully clear that the US taxpayer has forked 1.3 000 000 000 dollars to forces which have absolutely no intention of fighting for a small clique of Lebanese millionaires, much less so shooting at fellow Lebanese and even less so, trying to take on Hezbollah.
Along with Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Lebanon has been central to the administration’s Middle East agenda, especially in promoting democracy. Bush had been scheduled to meet with Siniora in Cairo at the end of his Middle East tour, but it is now unclear whether Siniora will be able to leave Beirut. The airport and port are closed.
Well, the CIA can always call in special forces to rescue Siniora ( just like it did with Maliki during the failed attempt at fighting the Sadrist Mehdi Army in Iraq).
“Clearly, Bush has a two-header now. He’ll have to explain away the lack of progress on the peace process, and a crisis in Lebanon that could see the collapse of the Siniora government. It comes at a time when the news from Iraq is as gloomy as ever and oil prices have reached $126 a barrel,” said Geoffrey Kemp, a Reagan administration National Security Council staffer who worked on Lebanon during the Shiite takeover of West Beirut in 1984.
Siniora now clearly as clueless, powerless and meaningless as Abbas. The entire edifice of the US foreign policy in the Middle-East is coming crashing down in abject failure and the Empire has not even began bombing Iran yet!
Still, in a pathetically delusional attempt to cover up their SNAFU the Neocons are, yet again, blaming Iran and Syria for all this.
Expect a foreign intervention any time from now on. The Neocons will unleash their bombs before accepting (the inevitable) defeat of their grand project.
Thanks for all the extensive coverage VS. Sorry for not posting comments as I know little of Lebanon outside of what I have read on your blog.
This appears to have all the makings of a new civil war, one that is being instigated by external powers. That much may be obvious to you but I doubt if 1 in 1,000 Americans is aware of this or would believe me if I were to speculate on who the external power is that is instigating things.
How sad that America seeks to be a world power but its own citizens know little about its designs or its actions. But I guess that’s how the people who run America want it to be.
-AA
Thanks for all the extensive coverage VS
You are welcome. The importance of these developments cannot be overstated and since almost nobody is paying attention to what is happening, and since those who do mostly distort the truth anyway, I try hard to present an alternative coverage of these truly historical events.
Stay tuned!
The Saker
I don’t think that this is the beginning of a civil war. A civil war tends to require one or more parties of roughly comparable strength. That situation does not obtain in Lebanon now, as the events of the past few days have made clear. Hizballah could take over the entire country in less than the time it takes the “Lebanese army” to make tea for Israeli generals. The rest of the assorted gangs and hoodlums did not even try to fight with Hizballah in Beirut. And can you honestly say you blame them?
AA,
Absolutely, spot on about Americans being completely in the dark. Reading the news in the NYT and Wash Post, only a perceptive and highly critical reader would imagine that we (Americans) are meddling there. Sadly, the number of perceptive, informed, and critical Americans is far, far fewer than one in 10,000.
At any rate, VS, thanks for the coverage and the analysis. Always, look forward to your posts. There was a dry spell there and I was beginning to wonder if you had lost interest or simply despaired and given up covering events.