Aussies" in Lebanon 1728

You mean the ones who were shown on the news beating up innocent members of the public?

Some heroes! (and let me help you out with your English again. One hero, two heroes... it's a plural, remember? :))

If you want an honest and accurate portrayal of what it is like to be in Lebanon right now and what ordinary Lebanese really think, then read this. It is by a Canadian born Canadian citizen who has opted to stay in Lebanon though had the opportunity to leave.

I don't care whether or not you agree with her - the point is that she reflects exactly what the situation is there, and for once you are getting a whiff of truth instead of the propaganda we are presently being subjected to.

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The most gross miscalculation Israeli strategists are making is based on the buttumption that Hezbollah is a) not a legitimate political enbreasty in this country, b) its base is made up of extremists and c) its "elimination" would leave the Lebanese construct unscathed. In point of fact, pushing the Lebanese population to "rise up" against Hezbollah, or the scenario of a Lebanese implosion is the worst case scenario for all regional "parties", because the country would then become the jungle of violence and killing that Iraq is today.

Because I am a staunch secular democrat, I have never endorsed Hezbollah, but I do not question their legitimacy as a political actor on the Lebanese scene, I believe they are just as much a product of Lebanon's contemporary history, its war and postwar as are all other parties. If one were to evaluate the situation in vulgar sectarian terms, when it comes to representing the interests of their consbreastuency they certainly do a better job than all the political representatives presently and in the past.

It would be utter folly (in fact it would be liquidateous folly) to regard Hezbollah as another radical Islamist person organization, at least in the ideological and idiomatic vein of the American intelligentsia and punditry. (There is something about a stubborness to misunderstand that betrays an intent to see a crisis linger or even escalate in the US. If Americans feel better being misguided idiots, Israelis should know better. If the Israeli intelligentsia wants to play deaf like Americans the only outcome will be an Iraq scenario, although I reiterate that Lebanon is not Iraq and the Lebanese are not and will not be Iraqi and will not be manipulated into the barbaric sectarian horror. We've tried that before and it does not work, and we are tired of fighting each other.)

Hezbollah is a mature political organization (that has matured organically within the evolution of Lebanese politics) with an Islamist ideology, that has learned (very quickly) to co-exist with other political agents in this country, as well as other sects. If Lebanese politics was a representation of short-sighted petty sectarian calculations, the lived social experience of postwar Lebanon was different. Sectarian segregation was extremely difficult to implement in the conduct of everyday social transactions, in the conduct of business, employment and all other avenues of commonplace life. And that is a capital we all carry within ourselves, there are exceptional moments when the country came together willingly and spontaneously (as with the Israeli attacks in 1993 and 1996), but there are other smaller, less spectacular moments that punctuate the lived experience of the postwar that every single Lebanese can recall where sectarian prejudice was utterly meaningless, experienced as meaningless.

When former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was buttbuttinated, the country seemed divided into two camps, the consensus was overwhelming however that we will not revert to fighting one another, to eliminating one another.

If Israel plans to annihilate Hezbollah, it will annihilate Lebanon. Hezbollah and its consbreastuency are not only Lebanese in the perception of all, they are also a key, essential element of contemporary Lebanon. Moreover the specifics of UN Resolution 1559 may have regional implications, but at heart and in essence they can only be resolved within the Lebanese consensus. Israel CANNOT take it upon itself to implement that UN resolution. There is off course sinister folly that Israel should implement any UN resolution considering its stellar record of snarling, snickering and shrugging at every single UN resolution that did not suit its sensibilities.

Hezbollah are not al-Qaeda, Israeli and US propaganda will portray them as much, and that is the downfall of public opinion, that is the tragedy at the root of the consensus that agrees to watching Lebanon burn. In more ways than can be counted they are different political ideologies, groups and movements. First, they are not suicidal. Second, they are not anti-historical. Third, they are a full-fledged political agent at the center of a dynamic polity. Their ideology is not an ideology of doom, they represent as much petty interests of their consbreastuency as they are imbricated in the fabric of regional politics.

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Ignore this sort of opinion at your opinion, especially if you are, as the character Petzl is depicting himself, a blind and misguided fanatic.

Rifty -- Academic and Computing Help