Beware of the Ides of march.

Forget about Solidere buy oil stocks.

Issam

Lebanese war criminal Walid Jumblatt met with Secretary of State Condi Rice yesterday ostensibly to discuss peaceable topics such as “regime change” in Syria and neo-colonial Western interference in Lebanese affairs…

But, like him or not, President Bashar Al-Assad is the only (relatively) secular/modernist ruler left standing between Istanbul and Delhi: toppling the Baathist regime of Damascus at this precise juncture would surely wreak havoc across the whole Middle-East- precisely what Paul David Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld must have had in mind when they decided to invade Iraq 3 years ago!

Anyhoo, for what it’s worth, below is my own Neo-Wilsonian five points plan to save Lebanon:

A FIVE POINTS PLAN FOR LEBANON

1. Jail and try Hariri, Saniura and the bloodthirsty Wahhabi collaborators of Saydah and Dinnieh who rampaged their way through Achrafiyyeh last month, burning consulates and churches Saudi-style

2. Nullify the ill-acquired SOLIDERE shares held by « generous Saudi investors », and give back their full property right to the lawful Lebanese landowners who were illegally expropriated by Rafic Hariri and Ghazi Kanaan in 1994

3. (Re)send to jail notorious war criminals who have massacred tens of thousands of innocent Lebanese civilians from 1975 to 1990: top of the wanted list is a certain Walid J. « Beyck » who, after having supervising the ethnic cleansing of the Chouf area, was rewarded with the “ministry of refugees” by Hariri père so he could better siphon out all the money earmarked for the orphans of Damour and Souk el Gharb- it’s kind of as if Adolf Hitler had been nominated « minister of death camps survivors » back 1945 ! but I’m digressing…

4. Adopt a new Gerrymander-free electoral law based on the sound principle of the “mid-size district” that would allow for a free and fair parliamentary representation of the people of Lebanon i.e. the precise opposite of the illegal 2000 electoral law imposed at gunpoint by King Fahd Ibn Saud and General Hafiz el-Wahech

5. Proceed with the election of a new president only AFTER transparent parliamentary elections are held across the country, under the supervision of European Union and UN observers

Joumblatt going to Washington, let alone making statements, in the midst of crucial dialogue sessions was a very bad idea.

PS. Vic, you’re still an idiot.

i think you are jumping to conclusions, while i agree that jumblatt’s statement was counterproductive to the dialogue and his visit in the first place should not have taken place at the expense of not attending the dialogue, it is not clear yet why exactly the talks have been suspended. I don’t buy the excuse of needing to consult the leadership of their respective parties, since they *are* essentially the leadership.

OK trading shabaa for Lahoud is not a good trade. And that saying Shebaa is Lebanese can easily be the excuse that Hizb needs to stay armed for the long term.

OK Jumblatt and his badly timed trip may be needed because there is a benefit to counter the Syrian Iranian axis and the softening support of Lebanon by Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

But Jumblatt should have stayed quiet during his trip. But I dont think he can resist media attention. You would think he was promoting a book or something..

Jumblatt gave a talk at the Brooking institute, it is a policy think tank, he did not give interviews to the NYtimes…
It is exactly what is expected of people coming to washington, and an opportunity to try and influence and shape the agenda a bit. There is no way this was set up without Hariri involvement.

i don’t think trading Shebaa for Lahood is a bad trade. That doesn’t necessarily put hisb off the hook. If we can prove to the UN that Shebaa is lebanese, i do believe Isreal would pull out of Shebaa under UN and US pressure and then hisb would be searching for another excuse to stay armed. I would take that deal.

Anon,
If the March14 gets that assurance then they would take the trade. But since when was the West able to pressure Israel into doing anything?? Very risky..

Humbumm,
True Jumblatt was going to give a talk on his trip. But I think he could have stayed clear of saying certain things so as not to appear that he scuttled the talks in Beirut. He may be a smart politician but he needs a P.R. firm..

What is important in the final analysis is not whether he was talking for others or whether he was speaking only for himself , what is important is whether he was telling it as it is. The truth of the mayyer is that HA is a group of theocrats whose only objective is to rule according to the dictates of a holly book , establish a theocracy and have an allegiance to an ummah and not a nation state. It would be a betrayal of all that is good and decent to help bring about that project to fruition.

Jumblatt is the only politician that has the courage to speak for a country that needs very badly someone to speak for it. I am glad that he has supported a free and sovereign Lebanon and I am more than willing to offer him my total support for the presidency. Ammend the constitution!!!

I was waiting for the customary swipe at Jumblatt to arrive and here it is.

I am GLAD the dialogue is stalling because it proves to me that the March 14th alliance is being true to its mission and not accepting compromise on the core issues! They are showing they are not to be bullied or threatened into mantaining the status quo, and Jumblatt’s visit to the US was intended to emphasize just how far they will be willing to reach out to accomplish this.

I can’t imagine Lebanon with Lahoud in it, with HA armed to the teeth, and with the tyrant of Damascus still refusing to acknoweldge our independence.

Now… you tell me, what kind of compromise can I reach?
None.
It’s a battle of mutually exclusive wills, to the victor goes the state.

The stakes are high because any compromise is a compromise on the independence of the Lebanese state.

Where is the midway compromise point when one group wants to stay armed and have a defacto state within a state?

What is the compromise point when one group still praises the sacrifices and contributions of a state (Syria) that has brutally occupied its neighbor for 20 plus years?

A compromise will lead to the end of an independent Lebanese. Something Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt et all do not want to see because they are afraid a free Lebanon is a threat to their Authoritarian systems.

The round-table discussion is a good idea. But I did not trust Berri to have set it up with good intentions.

Dunno dudes…
Last time I checked, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and/or Dr Bashar Al-Assad didn’t saddle future generations of Lebanese taxpayers with $ 50. bn in debt (Hariri/Riyadh Salameh from 1991 to 2004), or illegally expropriate ethnic Lebanese landowners and transfer the proceeds of his thefts to Saudi “investors” (Hariri/Fuad Saniura, Solidere 1994), or pass a Gerrymandering electoral law deliberately diluting the influence of Christian and Shiite voters (Hariri/Ghazi Kanaan, 2000).

I guess “Al-Haqiqa” and “Al-Seyadah” are in the eye of the beholder…

Dr. Vic,

If I had to choose I would rather be saddled with $50bn dollers in debt. Get gerrymandered. And have money stolen and given to the Saudis. Then live under the rule of Assad and/or Nasrallah.

Come on Vic. You can do better than that. Try harder. :-)

ramzi, (not ramzi s)

have you ever heard of the phrase “no victor no vanquished”? there is a reason that has been said.

lazarus,

I believe you are refering to “stalemate”!

I stand by Ramzi’s point of view(not ramzi s :))

I don’t c why the dialogue should stop because of what Jounblat said. They wre saying that everything was discussed openly with an open mind. So his statements shouldn’t have bothered them. Besides this is not his most fiery speech to date. So blaming jounblat for the dialogue failure is lame.

Abdulkarim i believe its not about WHAT he said, its about WHEN he said it. Those words were not necessary right now, people are finally a bit eased by the smiley faces and group hugs we’ve been seing, the last thing needed is one of the members firing from another country..especially America..now picture Hassan Nasrallah doing the same from Iran.

He could have stayed silent (media-wise) on whatever he is planning, and spare us the consequences of his speech on the round table.

I really do not want to attack, there is a chance i might be wrong about what i am saying, but the only logical aim behind such a speech in such a timing, is to disturb the dialogue.

Truely hope things go back to the normal flow.

I would rather have un-smiley faces and a disrupted dialogue if that dialogue is going to give Hizb the bonus of the Shebaa Farm trap so that they stay armed indefinetly.

But I agree that Jumblatt could have kept quiet during the trip about the deliberation in Beirut. But at the same time he was there to push his agenda about Lebanon and you cant do it all through private meetings only. And I doubt he can easily postpone a trip already booked with the top figures of the UN and US Administration. I wonder if Berri didnt plan the start date of the dialogue in Beirut knowing that Jumblatt was scheduled to be in the USA. To make Jumblatt look bad?