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March 13, 2005
deconstructing the US foreign policy narrative
This is the easy bit:
The irony is easily spotted. As Robert Fisk observes:
The irony is extraordinary: 140,000 American troops occupy Iraq--we shall leave the Israeli occupation forces in Palestinian lands out of this equation--while their President demands the withdrawal of 14,000 Syrian troops from Lebanon.
It is far more difficult to find some middle ground between the Lebanese opposition and Syria. How do you do that, if you are Lebanese?
Many in the Lebanese democratic opposition just want Syria out of their country. This was interpreted by Washington and Canberra am long the lines of the simple grand narrative constructed by the neocons.They held that the January 30 elections in Iraq were a overwhelming success and signified the march of democracy in the Middle East. The anti-Syrian demonstrations in Lebanon were then interpreted as a yearning for democracy inspired by the Iraqi elections.
But the anti-Syrian movement do not speak for Lebanon. Lebanon is still a deeply divided nation-state.
So which kind of democracy in Lebanon are we talking about?
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at March 13, 2005 10:56 AM
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