The Democrats and realist destabalize Lebanon

Whalid Phares:

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If Iran and Syria had any doubts about their strategy of destabilization, the midterm elections in the United States dispelled them. On November 7, the opposition party in the United States grabbed both houses of Congress. Although an unremarkable feature of American and Western politics, this shift in power was read by Iranian and Syrian elites as a collapse of American determination to defend democracies in the region. Ayatollah Khamenei declared: "The defeat of Bush in Congress is a victory for us." He was echoed in Lebanon by Hassan Nasrallah: "America is being defeated and is leaving the region. Those who worked with the US will pay the price."

Further reinforcing suspicions in Tehran and Damascus, the Iraq Study Group, headed by presidential advisor James Baker, is slated to recommend next month that Washington backtrack from its policy of promoting democracy in order to cut deals with…Iran and Syria.

On the basis of these developments, Iran and Syria concluded that the time was ripe to strike a punishing blow against democratic forces. But Lebanese leaders moved first. They emphasized that they would go to the UN and lead the masses into the streets against foreign interference in Lebanese politics. Calculating the numbers of the opposition, the "axis" commanders in Lebanon shifted tactics. Instead of sending in troops, a decision was made to send in the death squad to "mollify" the resistance.

The warning signs came last week. The ministers of Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal Party resigned from the Lebanese council of ministers to shake the "legitimacy" of the cabinet. They failed. The Lebanese Constitution is clear: You need more than one third of the members to collapse a cabinet. Therefore, the "axis" needed to eliminate three members, one after the other. Thus the decision was made to kill the youngest, brightest and most vocal Lebanese minister, a true symbol of Lebanon's civic revolution: Pierre Gemayel.

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The answer is clear. The United States and the new Congress must be implacable in resisting the onslaught of terror and fascism in the Middle East. When cynical politicians, interest groups and apologist academics call for the appeasement of Iran and Syria, resist them. When a population is endangered and its leadership is being eliminated, assist them. Will the new Washington rise to the occasion?

So far these questions are not being put to the Democrats and the realist. That is too bad. Eventually they will be unavoidable. It is not enough to say that if a Bush policy statement had this effect it would be challenged. In fact Bush's failure to challenge these sentiments has encouraged the Syrians. To his credit he has condemned the assassination in the strongest of terms. I think he will do the right thing, but he should start by rejecting the counsel of those who think there is something to be gained by negotiation with these thugs.