Lebanon's Word of the Day
zhumhuriyyat al-mauz - literally, "banana republic"
Used by Qornet Shehwan Gathering member Shakib Kurtbawi to describe how the presence of Syrian intelligence presence in Lebanon transformed the Lebanese government, Lebanon's own military and intelligence services, and even its society. Live on Future TV - from a morning talk show called Al-Ra'y (The Opinion).
posted by Unfrozen Caveman Linguist @ 1:50 AM
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3 Comments:
I just heard that Bashar al-Assad is in Saudi Arabia. They say that Joumblatt has been summoned there and will arrive in two days. Things have probably been reported on television, but I haven't been near any "real" source of info - just gossip.
Although I'm skeptical of the rumor mill, I liked this one:
"Saudi is upset over the Hariri murder, but is unwilling to put too much pressure on Syria at this point. To maintain the Syrian ego, the Saudis will pay the Syrians to quite Lebanon."
Since the Saudis solve all their problems with money - especially in Lebanon [Taef] - this rumor is tempting (and intriguing as a solution). The Syrians need money, would not feel like they were begging for it, and could leave Lebanon as a "favor" rather than because they were pressured out.
Also amazing is how the international community is actually acting. Schroeder (of all people) met with the Emir of Qatar who is on his way to Syria.
It seems Bush's tough talk has inspired Europe more than anywhere else. I mean, with Chirac and Schroeder on board, are there any stumbling blocks in Bush's path? It seems the Middle East has repaired the cross Atlantic drift.
But I worry that Iran might be getting away with something while out of the spotlight. And I notice that Kofi's spine is still pretty flimsy.
Another thing I heard today was someone questioning whether Israel has given any of its intelligence in the Hariri assassination to the US or the UN? It is assumed in Lebanon that the Israelis have listening posts all over. Could they have heard anything?
Mountain Man
Check this one out from the New York Times. It's rather good. Destablizing Syria internally right now would be bad for everyone: Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Iraq, Saudi, and anyone against Sunni fundamentalist terror.
Don't Rush on the Road to Damascus
By FLYNT LEVERETT
Published: March 2, 2005
ashington
THE assassination last month of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, has given new life to an old idea: using the issue of Lebanese independence to undermine Syria's strategic position. Drawing on the language of a United Nations Security Council resolution passed last summer, President Bush and senior officials are now calling on "the Syrian regime" to remove its military and intelligence personnel from Lebanon and cede any political role there.
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Administration hawks like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (who, as President Reagan's Middle East envoy, oversaw the collapse of America's foray into Lebanon's civil war) and the National Security Council's Elliott Abrams (whose previous involvement in Lebanon policy helped generate the Iran-contra scandal) believe that such a course would allow the establishment of a pro-Western government in Beirut that would accommodate Israel and help to project American influence. They also believe that it would set the stage for the Syrian regime's collapse, removing another Baathist "rogue state."
The turmoil unleashed in Lebanon by the Hariri assassination - which reached a high point this week with the resignation of the Syrian-backedprime minister, Omar Karami - may indeed represent a strategic opening, but not for the risky maximalist course that some in the administration seem intent on pursuing.
For starters, any effort to engineer a pro-Western Lebanese government would be resisted by Hezbollah, the largest party in Lebanon's Parliament, which because of its record of fighting Israel is at least as legitimate in Lebanese eyes as the anti-Syrian opposition. In the face of such resistance, efforts to establish a pro-Western government would fail, creating more instability in the region when the United States can ill afford it.
Does the Bush administration understand that for the foreseeable future, any political order in Lebanon that reflects, as the White House put it, the "country's diversity," will include an important role for Hezbollah? Does the administration feel confident about containing Hezbollah without on-the-ground Syrian management and with the group's sole external guide an increasingly hard-line Iran? Even Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's national security adviser recently said that an overly precipitous Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon could pose a threat to Israel.
Moreover, the sudden end of the regime headed by Bashar al-Assad would not necessarily advance American interests. Syrian society is at least as fractious as Iraq's or Lebanon's. The most likely near-term consequence of Mr. Assad's departure would be chaos; the most likely political order to emerge from that chaos would be heavily Islamist. In the end, the most promising (if gradual) course for promoting reform in Syria is to engage and empower Mr. Assad, not to isolate and overthrow him.
To exploit the current moment wisely, the Bush administration must abandon ideological attachments to a bygone era when Maronite Christian leaders dominated Lebanon or fantasies of a strategically neutered democratic state emerging in Syria over the next few months. We have been down this road before, during Lebanon's civil war; it ends with Americans killed or taken hostage in terrorist attacks, and our credibility damaged by our inability to undergird rhetoric with sustainable policy.
It's smart to take advantage of the current focus on Syria's position in Lebanon to obtain concrete improvements in Lebanon's political environment. With help from international partners and key Arab states, it should be possible to win the redeployment of the last Syrian troops in Lebanese cities either to Syria or to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, in accordance with the 1989 Taif accord that ended Lebanon's civil war. Mr. Assad's recent statements make clear that it should also be possible to induce the Lebanese and Syrian governments to negotiate a timetable for withdrawing all Syrian forces. During his four and a half years as president, Mr. Assad has already cut the number of Syrian troops in half, setting precedents for further reductions.
By taking up Mr. Assad's call for bilateral dialogue, the administration could also negotiate a freer Lebanese electoral process, monitored by international observers. The United States, however, should recognize that an expansion of political openness will unfold over years, rather than weeks or months; it will need to proceed cautiously to avoid a re-emergence of sectarian violence.
As Syria retrenches in Lebanon, the United States should use the issue to leverage improved Syrian behavior on issues that arguably matter more to American interests in the region, like Syrian support for insurgents in Iraq and for terrorist activity against Israel. Syria's decision to effect the turnover of Saddam Hussein's half brother and other Iraqi Baathists did not come primarily in response to American jawboning over Iraq. Rather, it was prompted by Syria's interest in deflecting the mounting criticism of its role in Lebanon.
The Bush administration can elicit more sustained improvements in Syrian behavior on Iraq and terrorism by using the threat of intensified criticism of Syrian hegemony in Lebanon - including Security Council action - as a badly needed stick in the repertoire of policy options toward Syria. Washington should also not be afraid to spell out for Mr. Assad the carrots it would offer in return for greater cooperation. In so doing, President Bush could more effectively pursue some of his most important objectives for the region while tangibly improving the lives of ordinary Lebanese.
Flynt Leverett, former senior director for Middle Eastern affairs at the National Security Council, issenior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy and author of the forthcoming "Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial by Fire."
To book.review@latimes.com
AND
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m retired and my “activist hobby” has inspired me to write this letter while reading the book:
“Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial By Fire”
By Flynt Leverett
From the books cover jacket it reads:
Leverett is a “senior” fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He has served as “senior” director for Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and as a “senior” Middle East analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Subject: Friendly Twenty-first century counseling with the Curse of Justice requested.
My viewing of Syria web pages, from which I received your email address, has shown me excellent examples of President Bashar al-Asad’s statement as being true. Bashar’s statement according to Leverett is that Bashar, is seeking to present himself as someone capable of leading Syria into the twenty-first century and one of his tools will be the Internet. This was written on page 64.
Below is a shorten version of a letter I sent to about 75 American newspapers and intellectuals of varying types. I’m ATTEMPTING to show how evil Internet Service Provider groups could easily make a client’s web site look as if the client is doing wrong.
Dear Markos (Unknown spelling of last name) Belindas @ www.dailykos.com
Subject:
Warning to Markos, the creator of the most visited Internet political web blog, www.dailykos.com. A political web blog, which Markos claims, and it appears to be true, gets half a million Internet visits a day.
I saw you being interviewed on Brian Lam’s TV C-Span show: Q&A, 4/10/ 05. It appeared to me that your Internet web blog company is an unknowing puppet of the Democratic Parties, “Covert Propaganda”.
Your wanting to find out if you are NOT a puppet takes time, money and moral charter. Since you Markos, appear as a young innocent man with strong morals, I suggest you try auditing the companies that advertise on www.dailykos.com. See if the companies are really earning enough money to justify there advertising on your website. See if all those businesses advertising on your web site exist as individual businesses or if some are part of a conglomerate just buying space on your site in order to keep www.dailykos.com alive. Keep your company alive so they can use it to push their political propaganda under the disguise as public opinions. You might also like to audit the companies controlling www.dailykos.com computer servers to see if they are “under” charging you. Under charging you as another life saving devise for your company.
Please investigate to see if the companies controlling www.dailykos.com computer servers might be infiltrating other computer networks, thus obtaining information illegally from “anyone’s” personal Internet connected computers. Investigate to see if www.dailykos.com computer servers share that information with the Democratic Party in someway to cause computer election registration and computer Vote manipulation. I make this request because this information sharing is POSSIBLY a “secret design of the computer chip’s main function” for www.dailykos.com Internet servers. Today’s newest spyware by Microsoft’s Windows “OneCare” isn’t free or capable of stopping professional. In my opinion “OneCar” is only a form of hush money. For every action there is a counter action and the programmers and chipmakers are worldwide. It’s Microsoft and some other smaller players like Symantec Corp. going against the world, and the USA and the CIA are just some of the competitors. So it looks like job security for Microsoft and the others. Witticism intended.
It’s possible that if the Democratic Party gets caught in this illegal information sharing they just point fingers at www.dailykos.com as the unknowing responsible party selling voter information or identity theft. The matter goes to court, possibly a world court, and everybody pleads ignorant and the only ones hurt are the victims of war. A war created because of corrupt information. Information cunningly distributed by computer chips.
With that being said one can easily relate to Leverett’s book page 96, where Syria’s “Old Guard” is unwilling to summit too quickly to the capitalist Internet. But Leverett makes it appear as if the “Old Guard” is wrong in not submitting to the gradualist model of reform. I personally agree with the “Old Guard’s” unwillingness to submit too much to fast to the Internet world of “serious business”. As an educational tool and for fun the Internet world is beyond comparison, except for many personal experiences. Again reason to be more acceptable to many of the “Old Guards” old ways.
I myself don’t trust Leverett because of his ties with the CIA, the most untrusting agency in the world. I say FIRST America should show they have good intensions by sharing information that takes “quality” ACTION that helps the poor. The CIA helps American capitalism distort information while the starving and suffering poor only get prayers and crumbs of promises, which dribble artfully from the cunning lips of political and religious groups.
Computers of Mass Destruction, A Friendly Twenty-first century counseling.
Sincerely,
Carl G. Mueller, Nam 68
DarkAlliancePage463@Hotmail.com
Syria’s Old Guard’s smiling responds in regards to Leverett’s book:
“Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial By Fire”
“Old Guard Internet Statement of 1 Million Plus”
Because we of the “Old Guard” have had many years in government and have accomplished many great things, we would like to see a web-blog where we could make hyperlinks within the same page. Then we could make a long web-blog, say about 25 pages with an index on the top. Visitors and or Gamers could then click one of use “Old Guard” members name, then view and or Install into a game profile, the many wanted qualities each “Old Guard” member may have used to accomplish the achievements. That hyper link is not limited to just one 25-page web-blog of course. Visitors/gamers then should be able to easily congratulate the “Old Guard” member with a response to that particular achievement, and suggestions for helping the visitor/gamer.
Of course we of the “Old Guard” would expect all the other Internet up dates like web cam, video, easy connection to mobile phones, extra large folding screen to help us elders with our fading eyesight and special stereo volume control for those elders that can’t hear as good any more. Since many of us “Old Guard” members have lost our typing skills we would need voice command, with automatic translation into 50 or 100 of the most common languages, so replying to blog visitors/gamers doesn’t become to consuming of our time. Once the gamer/education idea catches on as fun, we members of the “Old Guard” would employ our own gamer staff to help educate other gamers.
Force-Feeding of Education to the Energy-Monopolizing Countries
Let’s not forget two of some “Old Guard” goals, which could be introduced into Internet educational games. These goals are intended to bring the U.S.A, Russia and others to their energy-monopolized knees.
First goal:
Inexpensive Photovoltaic cells. We can put cells in the electrical towers (that run along rail road lines) to energize batteries to run generators to run bigger generators that run trains etc.
Second goal:
Easley constructed desalinization plants using photovoltaic cells to heat seawater into steam, steam evaporates true pipes leaving the salt in the heating basin (which droops salt onto freight cars), cools then turns into fresh water. With these programs our poor Moslem brothers in Africa will not need to be under the thump of the oil stealing countries. Of course we will share our knowledge (Educational Games) worldwide for FREE. This force-feeding of education to the energy-monopolizing countries could stop one BIG reason for going to war.
Now start designing cities that are Senior friendly with lots of schools to teach the poor about making Photovoltaic and Desalinization plants. Lots of hospitals with stem cell research facilities to extend lives of the Senior members of the “Old Guard”. Hurry up. If we “Old Guard” members were your age we would have the plans already done and construction beginning. We would be pushing wars to the side and start writing laws to make woman totally equal to men. Deep in the hearts of many “Old Guard” members we know woman are superior to us men when it comes to teaching. Therefore most “Old Guard” members want to stress education for woman and male servants in the home to do the housework.
In order to make the above more achievable for you “Youngies” we the Old Guard weblog Statement of 1 Million plus, understand that mathematics, physics, social structures and God can best be taught to young girls and boys by the powerful teaching tools of games. For now Internet Games can educate and thus save the world in a manner that no other medium can match.
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