Daily Ramblings:
Down In The Flood ...03/15/2005 11:18:04 am
From today's New York Sun: Million Lebanese Stage Retort To Terrorists.
Also, as the paper points out, there was a change from the "Death To America" tone of the Hezbollah demonstrators last week.
"Thank's Free World," (sic) said one poster, held high by a woman in a bright red jacket, Rawya Okal, who told me: "We thank Mr. Bush for his position." Overhearing this in the throng, a middle-aged man in a green baseball cap, Louis Nahanna, leaned over to say, "We love the American people" - adding, "Please don't let Bush forget us. Your support is very important."
Asking more people what they thought of Americans turned up the same refrain. From a young driver, Fadi Mrad, came the message: "We want to change. We need freedom. Please don't let Bush forget us." From a group of young men came not only the message "Our hope is America," and "We believe in democracy in the Middle East," but also praise for Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. There was also an invitation from one of them, young Edgard Baradhy, for his heroine, Ms. Rice, to come to Beirut "and I am ready to take her for coffee."
At one point, two young men sitting on a sidewalk mistook this reporter for a Frenchwoman, and called out "Vive la France!" The European nation's president, Jacques Chirac, has also come out in support of the democratic movement. When I told them that I was American, they got to their feet and came over to say, "Welcome to Lebanon."
And in the numbers game played out over the past week that has left commentators comparing Hezbollah's crowds to those of the democratic opposition, it is important to note that yesterday's protestors showed up not under the orders of any authority, but because they are willing to risk Syria's ire. Unlike the Hezbollah demonstrators, who dispersed at speed the moment their rallies were over, yesterday's demonstrators lingered - sitting, talking, waving flags, and savoring a display of public will in which almost one-quarter of Lebanon's 4.4 million people had demonstrated for their right to join the free world.
"Please don't let Bush forget us." This post over at LGF, with a link to public information on the status of the Navy, would seem to demonstrate that no one's going to be forgotten this time round - not with three carrier groups coming into range of Assad the younger in Damascus.
The value of having demonstrated (in Iraq) the willingness of the United States to back up its words with actions is now set to pay off, big time. Condi Rice has said "The time for diplomacy is now." She can say that because diplomacy, originating from this U.S. administration, now means something other than just making the usual condemnations and remonstrations. Bashir Assad knows where his Baathist brother Saddam now languishes. It's a part of the equation he can no longer ignore. And it makes it all the more likely that a great many more walls can fall without the firing of a single shot.
Lest we forget, all of this was earned with the blood of America's best - along with the very real sacrifices of British, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Australian and other troops. The willingness of the free to make such sacrifices is the single most intimidating weapon that can be used against tyrants, who flourish by convincing people that the cost of taking them on is too high. And demonstrating that willingness to sacrifice is the best way of helping make future sacrifices unnecessary.
The bad guys will never give in to words alone. Words backed up by a genuinely credible threat of overwhelming force are an altogether different story. As someone once said:
I don't think that guy meant, "this is what it's like in 1983, but if we all hold hands and talk maybe things will get better in a few years." I think he was saying that violence will always trump good intentions, and you've just got to face it.
So those with the best intentions had better be prepared to fight - and had better make the bad guys well aware of it - or the fight will come to them anyway, when they're unprepared.
Right now, you can consider that Assad and his fellow tyrants in the vicinity ought to be very well aware that they're not just facing a defenseless population, but, with the proximity of the forces of an engaged U.S., a well prepared and determined foe.
It's likely to be a long hot summer for a lot of folks.
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