Posted on 04/26/2005 3:57:54 AM PDT by HAL9000
BORDER POST OF MASNAA (Lebanon) - the last Syrian soldier left Lebanon Tuesday not very front 13H30 local (10H30 GMT) in direction of Syria, noted a journalist of AFP.The last soldiers crossed the border post of Masnaa on board eight Syrian military buses, raising Syrian flags and photographs of Syrian presidents Bachar Al-Assad and his/her late Hafez father.
Be Optimistic Patrick, the biggest hurdle is gone.
40,000 was the peak number during the beginning of the occupation.
Remember when Syria made all kinds of huffing and puffing that it was NOT going to follow W's time table...
looks like they did anyway.
I guess the MSM will be all over this story < sarcasm off >
I thought the US's MainStreamMedia is yesterday's Soviet news? They seem to both have the same anti-American agenda.
Actually they are ... funny thing though, in the AP, CNN and MSNBC pieces I glanced at, the name Bush was mysteriously NOT part of the story. Guess he and his policies had nothing to do with it.
OK, that I'll buy. OTOH not being able to hide an army from the UN... I think you could hide ANYTHING from the UN if it was something the UN didn't want to find (Hans Blix).
We watched that happen in real time when Saddam and his UN cronies jerked the "inspectors" around and basically chose where they could go and where they couldn't--or sometimes moved caravans of stuff out of a place right before the "inspectors" arrived often with the cooperation of some of the "inspectors".
If this is really going down as advertized, I'm thrilled to death and do have to give President Bush credit for changing the face of the Middle East--something most of us thought couldn't be done.
Purple fingers and mass protests (some with Christians and Muslims cooperating) against anti-democratic forces proved that.
In fact if this all goes down as hoped for, Bush will be regarded as one of the top 3 to 5 presidents in our history IMO. That is unless the US border issues blow up in his face. Even then this achievement cannot be denied.
Thank you President Bush."
Who would have thought that the "domino effect" could work in reverse?
Did they take the hidden WMD with them? Oh, wait, sorry, there were no WMD. My bad. MSM said there were none. I forgot. Never mind.
NY Times?>>>LOL
I can imagine their commander's final statement to the troops upon leaving.
"Whatever you do, don't spill any of that."
I thought the US's MainStreamMedia is yesterday's Soviet news? They seem to both have the same anti-American agenda.
Only far less entertaining!
Well you can. The Rwandan army has remained in the Congo years after its official withdrawal. They simply donned the uniforms of the RCD rebel militia that controls the Kivus. As the RCD's footsoldiers are drawn from the Banyamulenge ethnic group, identical to the Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi tribes, it is impossible to prove.
However Congo is the size of western Europe (minus Scandinavia) and Lebanon is half the size of Wales. Also Syrians have a different accent to most Lebanese and can be spotted a mile off. They Syrian army cannot hide in Lebanon and itas troops have indeed been withdrawn over the past two months.
The question is how much of the Syrian intelligence services have also been pulled back. They can easily mingle with the large number of Syrian labourers that remain in the country.
Incidentally everyone in Lebanon is as pleased as punch today. I drove through the Bekaa Valley this afternoon with a couple of Lebanese friends and they were whooping all the way.
That probably only leaves about 50 carloads of intelligence agents in Lebanon that aren't going anywhere.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20050426/ts_nm/lebanon_dc&printer=1
Syrian Forces Leave Lebanon After Three Decades
2 hours, 4 minutes ago
By Lin Noueihed
RIYYAK, Lebanon (Reuters) - Syria withdrew its last soldiers and intelligence agents from Lebanon Tuesday, ending a 29-year military presence in its small neighbor.
More on the latest, "It's Bush's Fault re Syria/Lebanon!:
As the Syrian troops crossed the frontier in green buses, many Lebanese hailed their departure as the start of a new era, but analysts said Damascus would remain influential.
"With the completion of the Syrian forces' withdrawal from Lebanon, a new political era in the relations between the two brethren countries starts based on close cooperation in all fields," Lebanon's new Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.
Syria told the United Nations it had completed its pullout from Lebanon in line with Security Council resolution 1559.
Syria "would like to officially inform you that the Syrian Arab forces stationed in Lebanon, at the request of Lebanon and under an Arab mandate, have fully withdrawn all their military, security apparatus and assets..." Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said in a letter to the world body.
Syrian forces entered in 1976 to try to end Lebanon's civil war which had begun the previous year. However, the conflict did not end until 1990. At different times, Syrian forces had fought Muslim and Christian militias, Lebanese army units, Palestinian guerrillas and the Israeli army.
Pro-Syrian Lebanese officials say 12,000 Syrian soldiers were killed in Lebanon and many more wounded.
The Syrians dominated Lebanon after the civil war, incurring little serious international opposition until a U.N. Security Council resolution in September demanded their withdrawal.
The Feb. 14 assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, blamed by many Lebanese on Damascus, triggered large anti-Syrian protests in Beirut and an outcry abroad.
That prompted President Bashar al-Assad to announce on March 5 that he would bring his forces home. The withdrawal, involving about 14,000 troops, took about seven weeks to complete.
"We are very happy, we are celebrating," Khaled Saleh, 24, a computer consultant said. "I have been asking for this all my life." A score of young Lebanese men performed the traditional dabke dance in celebration as the Syrians were leaving.
Analysts say the withdrawal will end Syria's domination of Lebanon but not end its influence altogether.
"Definitely there will be a reduction in Syrian involvement in internal Lebanese affairs. They will no longer select high-ranking officials," Samir Baroudi, a political scientist at Beirut's Lebanese American University, told Reuters.
"There will continue to be high-level coordination between the two countries as far as bilateral economic relations and the overall peace process in the Middle East."
OPPOSITION HAPPY
Anti-Syrian opposition leaders welcomed the pullout.
"This is a historic day for Lebanon. It ends a long period full of mistakes and hegemony," legislator Nayla Mouawad told Reuters. "The withdrawal met the opposition's demands and leads the way for new balanced relations with Syria."
The United Nations was due to issue a report on Syria's compliance with the Security Council demand later Tuesday.
A U.N. team was expected to arrive in Damascus to verify the withdrawal. It hopes to obtain maps of Syria's former positions and reports on the status of its military and intelligence presence in Lebanon, a U.N. official said. The team then travels to Lebanon, where it is to verify the Syrian withdrawal.
Cars carrying the last intelligence officers, including their chief, Rustum Ghazaleh, crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border at the Masnaa crossing after attending a farewell ceremony.
Eight buses carrying Syrian soldiers followed. Troops hoisting Syrian flags and pictures of Assad smiled and waved.
"Farewell to our brothers in the Syrian Arab Army!" a Lebanese officer had shouted earlier at the ceremony on the nearby Riyyak airbase in the Bekaa Valley.
"Goodbye!" his men responded, to about 200 Syrian troops.
"We will never forget them," soldiers chanted in reference to comrades who died in Lebanon.
"We sacrifice our blood and soul for you, Bashar," Syrian troops shouted.
Thousands of Syrians gave the soldiers a heroes' welcome as they crossed the Jdeideh border post into Syria. Vehicles transporting the returning troops were mounted by civilians carrying Syrian flags and pictures of Assad.
Lebanon's new government, led by Mikati, has pledged to hold free and fair elections on time in May. Parliament began a two-day meeting Tuesday to discuss the new government's policy statement and vote it into office.
France and Germany urged the new Lebanese government to push ahead with plans to hold elections after the Syrian pullout.
"Today is an important day for Lebanon because it's the end of the presence of the Syrian military and intelligence agents on Lebanese soil," French President Jacques Chirac told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
"New York Times headline: "BUSH POLICIES INCREASE SYRIAN UNEMPLOYMENT""
"Bush's policies of War for Oil create massive unemployment problem in Syria! Lesbians, Homosexuals, women, orphan children and Islamofascists suffer!
Well you can. The Rwandan army has remained in the Congo years after its official withdrawal. They simply donned the uniforms of the RCD rebel militia that controls the Kivus. As the RCD's footsoldiers are drawn from the Banyamulenge ethnic group, identical to the Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi tribes, it is impossible to prove.
However Congo is the size of western Europe (minus Scandinavia) and Lebanon is half the size of Wales. Also Syrians have a different accent to most Lebanese and can be spotted a mile off. They Syrian army cannot hide in Lebanon and itas troops have indeed been withdrawn over the past two months.
The question is how much of the Syrian intelligence services have also been pulled back. They can easily mingle with the large number of Syrian labourers that remain in the country.
Incidentally everyone in Lebanon is as pleased as punch today. I drove through the Bekaa Valley this afternoon with a couple of Lebanese friends and they were whooping all the way.
Yay! GOOD news! :)bump / ping!!
In all fairness, the Syrian withdrawal has as much to do with the death of Rafik Hariri as it does with the pressure that Bush and the French have applied to force Assad to abide by the UN resolution.
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