The bomb that killed the leader precipitated this.
Wrong.
excerpt:
All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.
~snip~
Those like you who either did not understand his message (delivered not in just this speech) or willfully distorted it can bray all the live-long day, but the people of the world know: President Bush is a man who says what he means and means what he says.
The people of Lebanon felt free to take these steps.
Exactly. And they felt free because of the USA.
Even Walid Jumblatt, who was as anti-American as they come, had suddenly come forward and credited the United States with Iraq's first popular election. They nay-sayers are backing themselves into a corner with no escape route. Let them.
Sometimes people who live in freedom and take it for granted cannot imagine what it is like to live under the darkness of tyranny, where even a sliver of light can be the difference between between utter despire and the hope that gives them the courage to persevere.
Here is what a dissendent in China said about GWB's inaugural speech. "I was deeply moved, as were the people and families of people who have been, harassed, persecuted, and imprisoned by the Chinese government for speeaking out. We consider it to be a speech as historical as the 'Iron Curtain' speech by Churchill after WWII...When he said that 'America will stand with you', there can be no greater encouragement to all the people in the world still fighting for their freedom."