Lebanon and Iraq

[First off, for links to the latest on the assassination of the Lebanese prime minister and today's promise (?) from Syria that they would withdraw troops, go here and here.]

Anyway, I was on my commute home this evening listening to NPR. They were carrying Daniel Schorr's commentary on the situation in Lebanon (which Condoleeza Rice has somewhat fatuously dubbed the "Cedar Revolution"). Schorr is usually a reliable source for some of the most delicious anti-administration commentary around. But not today.

In addressing the peaceful demonstrations in Beirut, he tied them to the 30 January Iraqi elections. He reminded his listeners of how, in the months prior to the invasion of Iraq, the President had spoke of bringing democracy to Iraq and thereby transforming it into a beacon of freedom in the Middle East. Noting that the Iraqi elections were "successful," he went on to say that, perhaps, President Bush had been correct.

There is a problem with this, as I see it. Consider the circumstances: Iraq has had democracy brought to it at gunpoint. For the past two years, the U.S. military has occupied Iraq, unleashing an ever-expanding native and foreign resistance that has crippled its economic and political stability and created an environment of fear which most Iraqis live with day in and day out. The election was a belated carrot, supported chiefly in regions of the country that had the most to gain by it. That's not to say that it wasn't a step in the right direction; it seems to me, however, that the election has done little to salve religious and ethnic tension and can hardly serve as a beacon under the circumstances.

In Lebanon, on the other hand, what seems to be occurring is a peaceful grassroots revolt against foreign domination that takes its cues from the recent peaceful uprisings in Georgia and the Ukraine. In the face of a violent act, the Lebanese people have named the evil among them and, through non-violent action, are expelling it from their midst. They have, so far, rejected the cycle of violence and retaliation that has engulfed the U.S. presence in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

So, no, I'm not quite sure that the moves toward democracy in Iraq and in Lebanon are parallel or necessarily have anything to do with one another.