Word: lebanon
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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...
...hereditary chieftain of Lebanon's Druze Muslim minority, Jumblatt earned the nickname 'the weather vane" for being able to steer his 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...
...Hizballah has almost an entire country in which it can securely headquarter operations and train for war with Israel. And unlike the easily isolated Hamas-controlled Gaza strip, Lebanon is a mountainous country with a long coast, porous borders, anti-Israeli neighbors, an excellent banking system and an international airport. No doubt flights from Tehran will be among the first to resume when Hizbballah re-opens the airport...
...Israel will begin thinking about their military options. There aren't many. The last time the US sent troops here the expedition ended badly, with the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in 1982. But the Israeli army, which has been re-training furiously since its Lebanon debacle in 2006, may want feel less restraint from going to war with a country now dominated by its adversaries...
...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...