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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color="#cc0033" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#CC0033;font-weight:bold'>Lebanon</span></font></b><b><font
size=2 color="#cc0033" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:#CC0033;font-weight:bold'> and </span></font></b><b><font size=2
color="#cc0033" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:#CC0033;font-weight:bold'>America</span></font></b><font color=black><span
style='color:black'> <br>
<br>
</span></font><b><font size=4 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:
13.5pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black;font-weight:bold'>That let-down feeling</span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=1 color="#999999" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#999999'>Nov 30th 2006</span></font><font
size=1 color="#999999" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:#999999'> | </span></font><font size=1 color="#999999"
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#999999'>CAIRO</span></font><font
size=1 color="#999999" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:#999999'> <br>
>From The Economist print edition</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><br>
<br>
</span></font><b><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black;font-weight:bold'>How gratitude turned
to suspicion</span></font></b><font color=black><span style='color:black'><br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>GEORGE BUSH has a gift
for simplification. “There's a young democracy in </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Lebanon</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>,
run by Prime Minister Siniora,” he said. “And that government is
being undermined, in my opinion, by extremist forces encouraged out of </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Syria</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>
and </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Iran</span></font><font size=2
color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>.” Many Lebanese agree, and some would thank </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>America</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>
for having helped bring Fouad Siniora and his pro-Western coalition to power
last year, by forcefully backing the popular uprising that ended years of
Syrian tutelage. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>But plenty of Lebanese
see things differently. They think Mr Siniora's government greased its way into
office with money, and is being used as a spearhead for Western influence. The
resentment of American support for </span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Israel</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'> that the Lebanese share with other Arabs was compounded by last
summer's brutal war. Even for those allied to Mr Siniora, faith in the
superpower took a rough shaking as his erstwhile American friends dawdled
diplomatically while Israeli bombs systematically demolished the country's
infrastructure. Moreover, deadly cluster bomblets, supplied to </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Israel</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'> by
</span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>America</span></font><font size=2
color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>, still clutter south </span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Lebanon</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>The Cedar revolution
that erupted after the February 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former
prime minister who had turned hostile to </span></font><font size=2
color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>Syria</span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>, had seemed to boost
American influence. With the ignominious withdrawal of Syrian troops, the Bush
administration held up the apparent triumph of Lebanese people-power as the
shiniest model for its initiative to defeat extremism in the region by
spreading democracy.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>But on the ground in </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Lebanon</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>
that triumph soon began to sour. Last summer's war completed a growing polarisation
between two factions of roughly equal number, Shias and their Christian allies,
and Mr Siniora's grouping of Sunni Muslims, Druze and anti-Syrian Christians.
Government supporters blamed Hizbullah for igniting the conflict with </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Israel</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>
and so exposing the fragile country to ruin. But the suffering of </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Lebanon</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>'s Shias,
combined with Hizbullah's effectiveness at both fighting and rebuilding, hugely
strengthened the party's claim to leadership of a country that, in its vision,
aspired to be a bastion of resistance to the West rather than a cosmopolitan entrepot.
</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>With both sides
tarring their opponents as traitors and agents of foreign powers, the semblance
of unity in Mr Siniora's government unravelled. And though it may be doctrinal
hostility to </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>America</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>, and allegiance to </span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Iran</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'> and </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Syria</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>, that are propelling the current push to unseat the government, Hizbullah
has capitalised on suspicion of </span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>America</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'> to broaden its appeal beyond its core Shia constituency. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>The threat of unrest
has raised fears that Sunnis will be pitted against Shias, and pro- and
anti-Syrian Christian factions against each other. Not since the end of the
1975-90 civil war, has war seemed so imminent. The memory of that war is bitter
for all Lebanese, but perhaps most for those who pinned hopes, in the wake of </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Israel</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>'s
1982 invasion, on American intervention—only to see </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>America</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>
scuttle the place in 1984 after suicide-bombers killed 241 Marines in </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Beirut</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>. </span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>Syria</span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>
then took over. To the glee of </span></font><font size=2 color=black
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Hizbullah</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:black'>, </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Syria</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'> and </span></font><font size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:black'>Iran</span></font><font
size=2 color=black face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;
color:black'>, and to the chagrin of Mr Bush, a similar scenario could be about
to unfold.</span></font></p>
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