Posted on 02/27/2005 9:38:40 PM PST by Righty_McRight
MUKHTARA, Lebanon - Walid Jumblatt, the most prominent anti-Syrian voice in Lebanon, is holed up in his ancestral mountain palace, planning strategy with his allies behind its high gates, out of fear he may be marked for assassination like his late ally, the former prime minister killed in a bomb blast.
Jumblatt, a Druse warlord turned politician, is even reported to have packed off his 22-year-old son to France to ensure a survivor from his immediate family to carry his mantle if he is killed. He denies that's his motive, saying his son, Taymoor, is just finishing his studies.
"I am taking security precautions. But at the end of the day, I cannot shut myself indoors forever," he told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday at his sprawling, centuries-old home in the Chouf mountains in the heart of Lebanon.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Wow! Who'd of thunk it?
OK, what makes someone a "warlord?" Is there a school for warlords,a la the Jedi academy.
Man, I hate being poor... I want an ancestral mountain palace too!! I want it near a lake if possible.
1970s Lebanon was the ultimate school for warlords. Lebanon is a very feudalistic country which breaks down along village and tribal lines. When the country fell apart, militias sprang up among those same familial factions. The Jumblatt family leads the Druze in Lebanon, and Walid Jumblatt's is a voice worth hearing...
Shades of Hobeika.
Mountain fortress? Jumblatt the Hutt?
The Syrian regime has outworn its usefulness to the Lebanese warlords. I mean, it's one thing when your ally is murdering Christians and Jews...
Their number of trusted allies-which is a misnomer when you're speaking of people whose trust is purchased primarily through bribes/coercion-is rapidly dwindling.
Pretty soon the Assad regime will have less usable capital than Scarlet O'Hara's father. ;')
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