Lebanon Once Again Ignites While on America’s Back-Burner

Photo: Associated Press

Beirut is once again in flames as Iranian-backed Hezbollah militias and Lebanese government forces clash in the worst outbreak of violence there since the end of the fifteen year civil war in 1990. The underlying political stalemate between the government and Hezbollah-led opposition parties, which has left the country without a president for nearly a year-and-a-half, is still unresolved. And, once again, America stands idly by and watches.

Knock It Off!

Yesterday, an assassin widely presumed to be a Syrian agent murdered yet another high-profile anti-Syrian politician in Lebanon. George Hawi’s killing follows the murders former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and prominent journalist Samir Kassir, both important anti-Syrian voices in a Lebanon that is trying to find its political footing.

Just so we are all clear about what’s happened here: the political will of a long-troubled country is being subverted by assassination. Real lives are being extinguished in cold-blooded murder.

Secretary of State Condoleza Rice gave Syria a piece of her government’s mind: “They need to knock it off.”

Knock it off!?!