[Peace-discuss] Will Obama attack another country?

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Lights are burning late in Foggy Bottom (the Washington DC site of the State 
Department) tonight - and across the river, in Virginia, in Arlington (the 
Pentagon) and Langley (the CIA). The criminals in charge of USG policy are 
trying to decide what to do if Hezbollah becomes - quite legally - the effective 
governess of Lebanon. The US support for democracy is a sham, as the world knows 
from examples like Palestine, where a surprisingly democratic election led the 
to wrong people's winning - and so the US launched a campaign of murder to 
prevent the democratic wishes of a people to take effect. That's probably what 
they'll do in Lebanon, but - particularity after Tunisia - it's not so easy as 
it was for Eisenhower (who invaded Lebanon in 1958). --CGE]

Druze Leader’s Endorsement Likely to Put Hezbollah Bloc in Power in Lebanon
Formal Backing of the PSP Would Give March 8 a Narrow Majority
by Jason Ditz, January 21, 2011

Reports coming out of Lebanon today suggest that Walid Jumblatt, the leader of 
the Druze-dominated Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), is going to back the 
March 8 political bloc led by Hezbollah, effectively giving them enough seats to 
form a majority government.

The PSP was originally part of outgoing Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s March 14 
bloc, but after the unity government became basically an independent faction 
and, as without them the split between the two blocs was 60 seats to 57, the de 
facto kingmaker with their 11 seat party.

While the original fall of the Lebanese government last week suggested that 
there might be a long-standing deadlock between the two factions, the surprising 
shift by PSP now points to Hezbollah going from the minority partner in a grand 
coalition government to the dominant player in a smaller majority government.

An interesting aspect of Lebanese politics however is that no member of the 
Shi’ite Hezbollah could ever be Prime Minister, as the National Pact obliges any 
government to give that position to a Sunni. This might actually set the stage 
for the installation of a member of Lebanon’s tiny Ba’ath Party to the position, 
given the paucity of Sunnis in the March 8 bloc at present.

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/01/21/druze-leaders-endorsement-would-put-hezbollah-bloc-in-power-in-lebanon/