Word: hizballah
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...President delivered these remarks, however, the people of Lebanon had a message for him: half a million of them-far more than had attended any pro-democracy rally-had been gathered in the streets of Beirut by the terrorist-military-civic group Hizballah...
...demonstration's message was both confusing and crystal clear. Was it pro-Syria? The demonstrators carried photos of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Was it pro-democracy? The demonstrators carried Lebanese flags. Hizballah was cleverly announcing its ability to either thwart or support the "liberation" of the country, depending on the hand it was dealt in the negotiations for a new government. It was also announcing that it was, by far, the largest and best-organized political force in Lebanon...
...mockingly called the BMW Revolution, locally-but it couldn't stop the reimposition of the pro-Syrian Prime Minister, Omar Karami, nine days after he was forced to resign. And so the Bush Administration finds its hopes for democracy in Lebanon almost completely dependent on the good faith of Hizballah-a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran, which provides the group with $100 million to $200 million annually, according to intelligence estimates-a group traditionally more interested in lobbing Katyusha rockets into Israel than in organizing municipal elections...
...same time, Hizballah's leader is signaling broad agreement with opposition objectives, even conceding that the time may now be ripe for a Syrian withdrawal. Most importantly, he shares absolute aversion of all the Lebanese factions towards any resumption of civil conflict. Violence against other Lebanese, he told his supporters on Tuesday, was a red line that dare not be crossed. Indeed, his performance led Lebanon's leading pro-Western liberal daily newspaper, the Daily Star, to enthuse in an editorial that "Hizballah is not a problem - it is part of Lebanon's solution." The question, however, is whether...
...Hizballah has a deep well of popular support to see it through the coming political storms, the same can't be said for its strategic ally in Damascus. The Lebanese crisis has simply highlighted the extent to which Bashar Assad finds himself caught between his own people and the security establishment on which his power depends. Assad last week concluded an exclusive interview with TIME by emphasizing, "I am not Saddam Hussein; I want to cooperate." Assad's words may be true in ways he never intended, however. He's nothing like Saddam, personally: An accident of history...