Word: hizballah
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There are no longer any Hizballah fighters surrounding the grand red sandstone Beirut town house belonging to Walid Jumblatt, a member of Parliament and one of the leaders of Lebanon's governing coalition. Still, Jumblatt, a top American ally, is under virtual house arrest. After the lightning speed with which opposition Hizballah fighters defeated government supporters in a six-hour battle on Thursday - only to vanish a few hours later - it became clear that it is pointless to resist the Iranian and Syrian-backed militia, which could return at any time. "I am a hostage now in my home...
...followers through the ever changing winds of Middle East politics. A former princely vassal to the Syrian Assad regime, he switched his loyalties to the Bush administration after the invasion of Iraq, when it briefly seemed like American military power would transform the region. Yet, despite the fact that Hizballah is perhaps the world's most fearsome guerrilla organization, somehow Jumblatt misjudged the ease with which Hizballah could pull Lebanon back into the Syrian and Iranian orbit. "I must admit that the Iranians are smart and they knew how to play it in Lebanon," he said. "They chose a time...
...Hizballah began its campaign of protests against the Lebanese government some 17 months ago, when it accused the ruling party of siding with America in a plan to isolate and disarm the anti-Israeli militia. But until last week Hizballah, which was born as an Islamic resistance group during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, had said it would never use its weapons against fellow Lebanese. But when the Lebanese government moved to close a private Hizballah telecommunications network used for coordinating military operations, Nasrallah declared it an act of war. Hizballah fighters swung into action, shocking the nation...
...doing so, Hizballah will have secured its existence as an armed state-within-a state, despite decades of American efforts to prevent Lebanon from being used as a staging ground for operations against Israel. But the U.S. appears unable to grasp that it no longer has any options or reliable partners left in Lebanon. American officials make statements about supporting the democratically elected Lebanese government, but essentially no such government exists. The Lebanese army, many of whose soldiers are Shi'a Muslims and support the opposition, would split apart if pressed into service against Hizballah. The American-trained security services...
...there is any consolation for Israel and America from the Hizballah takeover, it is that Lebanon is famously ungovernable. With 17 different sects and a constitution that divides power among religious groups, bold power grabs by any one group are usually ephemeral and followed by chaos. It as if those whom the gods would destroy, first they put in charge of Lebanon...