Amid the shattered dreams of a grand transformation, Lebanon, a land fabled for its vulnerability to foreign intervention, offered an opportunity, a deliverance from the troubles that have afflicted U.S. policy in the Middle East. Since at least 1990, Syria had established dominion in Lebanon and rendered it a base for all sorts of pro-Syrian militant organizations -- Palestinian and Lebanese, secular and fundamentalist. Many Lebanese were not happy with the Syrian order, and the opportunity for change came with the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on March 14, 2005. Hariri was a man with a vision for his country: retrieving the lost glory of the days when Lebanon had been a cosmopolitan center for Arab finance and commerce, a land of genuine pluralism, open-mindedness and tolerance. His vision clashed with that of the Syrian regime, and his assassination unleashed anger that had been simmering for years against the Syrian order.
Lebanon’s Politics Gives Hezbollah Power
