U.S. wants Syria to withdraw from Lebanon

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 8/31/04 | Edith M. Lederer - AP

[monkeyshine]

But the draft is almost certain to face opposition from...Russia and China, which traditionally oppose council interference in a country's internal affairs.

Huh? But this is not internal, it is a foreign Soveriegn army (Syria) occupying a Sovereign member of the UN (Lebanon).

[cmotormac44]

I firmly believe the Iraq WMD are buried in either Syria or Lebanon--remember the truckloads of stuff going over the Syrian border before we invaded Iraq?---maybe GWB knows where the stuff is and will spring a 'surprise' begfore the election?

[Cronos]

I think Iran and Syria should be next on the hit-parade, so don't get me wrong. There's no love lost between me and the Syrian government.

I would disagree with that -- Syria's government is a secular government which respect it's Christian (>10%) and Druze (30%) populations. They oppose Israel for more ethnic reasons than religious and Assad Jr. realises that supporting the Hiz-b-allah can be dangerous to his own state. We need to push Syria to remain secular, let Assad remain in power as long as he makes peace with Israel and stops supporting the "Army of God" and the PLO.

Any action against Syria would mean that the 2 million Christians would have to flee as a theocratic regime would come into power -- like Sadr's Mahdi army in Irtq

[Cronos]

And good reason there is to believe that much of Saddam's WMD cache is secreted there.

I doubt that -- the two countries had rival branches of the Baath party -- note that the Baathists are secularist, pan-Arab nationalists. Assad Jr. isn't a fool -- to have allowed the Irqis to send WMD into Syria would have been suicide. It's more likely they went into IRan or were taken up by Sadr

[Cronos]

My take was that Palestinian refugees and other malcontents in Lebanon rebelled against Christian rule there. That being said, it doesn't seem unreasonable to consider that Syria was agitating the situation.

Palestinians are 2% Christian -- they were 17% in 1900 and that had dropped to 2% by 1999 -- most Christian Arabs have migrated to the Americas North AND south. The PLO had concentrated in Southern Lebanon and this flared up into a war. Syria got Israel distracted

[Cronos]

Once upon a time, Lebanon was the envy of the Arab world

That was when it was majority Christian. The moment the slammics became the majority, that's when things went downhill. I say we should do what was initially planned -- separate the two communities -- let the Christians stay in Southern Lebanon and take Beirut and the mountains. Give the north to the slammics. Maybe we can also wangle it so that Syrian Christians get Damascus and the southern 10th of Syria. Or, we just give souther Syria and Lebanon to the Christians and Druze and kick the sunnis out north

[GoLightly]

Being as Iran is run by religious fanatics who have shown a strong desire to run Iraq, Saddam used WMD against Iran AND Iran screwed Iraq over when they kept Iraq's fighters which had been shipped over for safekeeping before Desert Storm, I think Iran would be about the last place they were sent.

Through Syria & into Lebanon is more believable to me.

[kiwiz]

The people in Lebanon do wish for the withdrawal of the Syrian troops and the end of its political control. The only reason there ever was a civil war in Lebanon is because of the interference of foreign forces (i.e. Israel, Palestine, Syria..) If the UN can guarantee Lebanese independance, everything should go fine. I do believe that Lebanon is the only place in this world where 18 religious communities can co-exist peacefully in such a small area; especially that they all practice their religions.