The Path of Least Resistance

Farid Ghadry
Farid Ghadry Blog
21 December 09

The media’s attention to the Hariri’s visit to Damascus is due, to a large extent, to the story behind the visit rather than to its mundanity. No other sitting prime minister in contemporary politics had to accept the violence of his neighbor and endure illicit appendage of his country just so other nations and their leaders wash their hands from the many problems that neighbor poses to the region. It goes to show that violence in the Middle East pays. Killing Americans pays and terrorizing your neighbors at will pays. Who wants to bother with peace and co-existence anymore?

Who else is watching Lebanon fold again into Syria’s orbit because of violence? Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, Fatah al-Islam, and 99 other organizations of terror named after catchy words from one Koranic verse or another. They watched the actions of Assad in pursuit of terror and tyranny yield some very high returns. When the west sells Lebanon short, it opens the flood gates to would-be terror groups, many unwilling to accept the central role Damascus plays in embryonic terror cultivation. Those are also paying attention when they see terror succeed. They have a new rugged territory to plan their attacks from: Yemen. They all understand that President Obama is not about to declare another war ever during his presidency.

No polls have been taken prior to the Hariri trip by any Lebanese or Arab entity to capture the mood of the Lebanese people the majority of which voted for the March 14 movement. Whether by design or by wanderment, the opinions of the Lebanese seems not to matter much to Saudi Arabia or the US. Will they acquiesce to the Assad hegemony? Or will they continue the struggle for independence and sovereignty? Which age group can Lebanon rely upon to defend its identity going forward? This time around, Assad intends to smother Lebanon’s democracy to permanently destroy the most potent and independent mechanism able to threaten his regime and no one at the White House fully grasps what they have done to this gem in the heart of extremism.

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