Isolating the Islamic religious bigots

Amir Taheri:

LESS than three days after President Obama tried to woo Islamist forces with a major speech in Cairo, secular democratic forces in the Middle East won a dramatic victory in a crucial election in Lebanon.

Two rival blocs faced off -- one pro-Iranian, one pro-Western.

The March 8 Coalition is led by Hezbollah (The Party of God), a semi-clandestine Shiite outfit with a private army financed and controlled by Iran. Also in the bloc: the Amal (Hope) Movement, a pro-Syrian Shiite group; a Maronite Christian group led by ex-Gen. Michel Aoun (a populist megalomaniac who was Tehran's handpicked but unsuccessful candidate for the Lebanese presidency last year), and the Armenian Dashnak Party, a Fascist group with historic ties to German Nazis and Italian fascists of the 1930s and 1940s.

The secularist democratic bloc, known as the March 18 Coalition, includes the Future Movement led by Sa'ad Hariri (son of assassinated Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri), as well as the Progressive Socialist Party of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and two Maronite Christian parties (led by ex-President Amin Gemayel and former guerrilla leader Samir Geagea).

In the five years it has held the government (led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora), the March 18 Coalition has forced Syria to end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon -- and resisted mounting Iranian pressure to transform Lebanon into a frontline bunker for a war on Israel.

Sunday's general election offered Lebanon a clear choice between becoming an Iranian satellite or a Western ally. The results show a decisive rejection of the Iranian option.

...

Something interesting is also happening in Ira since Obama's election. His outreach to the religious bigots in charge has made the US less popular with Iranians. Before Obama's election the US was viewed favorably by 35 percent of the population and since Obama has signaled he wanted to work with the bigots that support has dropped to 29 percent. An outreach to the oppressors is not the way to win favor in these countries despite the groveling and kowtowing.

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