By cyrena, January 28 at 12:08 pm

Could this presence POSSIBLY be a ‘problem of their own making’? Or, has someone -ANYONE- FORCED the US to maintain a presence in the Middle East?

Why don’t you just cut out 95% of your huffing, puffing, and obtuse rhetorical posturing, and just state succinctly and clearly what it is you mean?

How do you figure that the US is being blamed for problems not of it’s own making? WHY is the US supplying arms to Lebanon, OR ANYBODY ELSE IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

WHY does the US have ANY presence ANYWHERE in the Middle East?

Check a map/atlas lil mamzer. Look for Syria. It’s in the Middle East. Look for Lebanon. It’s right in the same spot..IN THE MIDDLE EAST.

Now, direct your eyes at least 10,000 miles across several bodies of water, and some land masses as well. THERE you will find...The Divided States of America.

Tell me again...help me understand, WHY IS THE US IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

Could this presence POSSIBLY be a ‘problem of their own making’? Or, has someone -ANYONE- FORCED the US to maintain a presence in the Middle East?

“It doesn’t help that the US is arming the whole place.”

That is inaccurate. The strongest military force in Lebanon by far is the hezbollah terror organization, which is both funded and armed in a massive way by Iran, with Syria as the transit point.

The question to you is, can you possibly so naive to suggest that it is the fault of the US for the current state of armed gangs in Lebanon and actually believe this to be the case, or are you simply another disingenuous (read: liar and propagandist) who will never miss an opportunity to blame the US for problems that are not of its own making?

“The current situation in Lebanon cannot continue like this; a country without a president and an armed organization (Hezbollah) that functions as country within a country.”

Without Syrian interference and the funneling of massive arms shipment to Hezbollah through Syria from Iran, Lebanon might have a chance at a national reconciliation.

“It doesn’t help that Israel has consistently attacked them either. ”

You have it backwards here.

Israel was attacked by Lebanon in 1948.

Israel was attacked incessantly across her northern border with Lebanon throughout the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and of course well into this century as well.

It was Lebanon which gave safe haven to terrorist groups such as the PLO, the PFLP, Hezbollah, and others, who have targetted Israeli civilians living near the border (and even further south, such as when sea-borne Arab terrorists landed on Israeli beaches and carried their murder inland).

Israel, of course, and by right, has defended herself, going all the way to Beirut in 1982, and of course bombing the shit out of Hezbollah in the Dahiye section of Beirut they control, in the summer of 2006.

If Lebanon could ever learn to be a good neighbor, she would only benefit from a relationship with Israel. It’s up to the Lebanese, but they are too fratricidal to ever get their act together.

Any genius care to include Syria in Lebanon’s troubles?

If you believe that in the principle “who cares” then how come we are in Iraq? Why are the Europeans active in the Middle East? Why did Sarkozy go there? Why did Bush go there? Why are the Chinese there? As long as there is OIL there, the rest of the world will not lose interest. You’re wrong! I also bet that you won’t lose interest either when you will be paying $5.00 for a gallon of gazoline in the near future.

It doesn’t help that the US is arming the whole place.

It doesn’t help that Israel has consistently attacked them either.

That only creates ‘civil war’ which seems to me, to be exactly what the Dastardly Dangerous Duo (the US and Israel) want to happen.

The current situation in Lebanon cannot continue like this; a country without a president and an armed organization (Hezbollah) that functions as country within a country. I agree that something is going to give and the net result will be a devastating civil war.