Civil War in Lebanon

I guess Hezbollah decided that attacking Israel head-to-head is too costly, and seein’s how they’re just bloodthirsty thugs that need to kill, they’ve decided to declare war on the Lebanese Army – an army they’re reasonably certain they can beat, cowardly pussies that they are (from Gateway Pundit – the best resource on the war, by the way);

Hezbollah rockets hit the home of majority leader Saad Hariri on Friday.
ABC News Australia reported:

A rocket has hit the outer wall of the house of Lebanon’s majority leader Saad Hariri, as fighting continues for a third day in the country’s capital Beirut.

A source close to the Sunni politician says no one was injured by the attack on the leader’s west Beirut residence.

The attack comes as several Sunni neighbourhoods in west Beirut, considered strongholds of Lebanon’s ruling coalition, have fallen under the control of rival Hezbollah-led militants.

Hezbollah also forced the closure of pro-government media and took control of a pro-government TV station. Hariri’s Future TV is off the air after being threatened by the Hizbullah militia. Hezbollah also set fire to the al-Mustaqbal newspaper building.

Yesterday Gateway Pundit also pointed to Talisman Gate who explains how the situation in Sadr City influenced the clashes in Lebanon;

Ostensibly, Hezbollah is responding to the Lebanese government’s decision to sack the security chief of Beirut’s international airport, and to dismantle Hezbollah’s secure landline-based communications network that had been expanded recently.

What could have spurred-on this over-reaction on Hezbollah’s part, which has been manifested so far with flexing its muscles in the Sunni area of Beirut, seemingly showing-up the government as weak and vulnerable?

I believe Iran needed to show the United States and its Arab allies that it can humiliate them by overrunning the government they back in Beirut and that they’d be unable to do anything about it, and I believe that Iran needed to make this point now because the Mahdi Army in Iraq has collapsed.

The Associated Press in the Wall Street Journal concurs;

The clashes are the latest turn in a test of wills between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the government of Mr. Saniora. The U.S.-backed government has only a slim majority in Parliament, and the two sides have been locked in a 17-month power struggle that has kept government at a standstill.

The fight could have implications for the entire Middle East at a time when Sunni-Shiite tensions are high. The tensions are fueled in part by the rivalry between predominantly Shiite Iran, which sponsors Hezbollah, and Sunni Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The leaders of Qatar and Syria held talks on Lebanon in Damascus, which wields influence with Hezbollah and has close relations with Iran. Syria’s official news agency said the two sides agreed the conflict in Lebanon was an internal affair and expressed hope the feuding parties would find a solution through dialogue.

I’m not sure why the Associated Press continues to call this the “US-backed government” since there are a lot of nations that back the constitutionally-elected government of Lebanon.

Gateway Pundit also writes that the Hezbollah thugs mark their territory with pictures of Syria’s president Assad. So we can expect the UN to condemn Iran’s and Syria’s support of these anti-government thugs any minute now. Associated Press reports that Arab nations have called for an “emergency” meeting – in two days. Some emergency meeting.

Will we see Nancy Pelosi talk her good pal Assad into leaving the Lebanese alone? Will Obama take some time and talk to Ahmadinejad?

Category: Media, Politics, Terror War