October 27, 2003

Syria - Hezbollah Land

The parallels between today's Iraq and Lebanon twenty years ago are striking. American soldiers in large numbers are playing nursemaid to a democracy that is threatened by Islamic extremists. Our enemies are hoping for a similar result this time around. Barbara Lerner says we should provide Syria with some disincentives to continuing their current behavior:

Syrian-occupied Lebanon — Hezbollah land — is important symbolically as well as strategically, because the terror war began there 20 years ago. American marines were in Lebanon then, in Beirut, serving as peacekeepers in a land where there was no peace to keep. Lebanon, once the freest, most progressive, and most democratic state in the Arab world, was in the midst of a civil war: Islamists were battling moderate Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, and an international medley of entrepreneurial others who once found Lebanon a safe and congenial place. Hezbollah, a Shiite terrorist group, had a population larger than that of its opponents, experienced terrorist allies from Sunni terror groups like the PLO, and a steady supply of money and weapons from the terrible trio. Hezbollah had no interest in compromise or peace. Its jihadis were determined to seize control of Lebanon, subjugate all local Arabs who opposed them, and drive the Americans out — and they succeeded. Hezbollah terrorists launched a brutal attack on our marines, asleep in their barracks, massacring 241 of them. And we collected our dead and went home.
Posted by dan at October 27, 2003 01:48 PM
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