Shifting Sands in the Middle East

Lebanon, once one of the most beautiful places in the world, has been devastated by years of civil war and strife between themselves, Syria and Isreal. For 16 years Syrian forces have occupied Lebanon and have controlled the government there. Just a week or so ago a major player in Lebanese politics was assassinated, most likely by Syrian operatives.

Things are starting to change over there, and there's a good chance that freedom could be breaking out. Here's what a leader of the Lebanese independence movement had to say (hat tip TKS):

The leader of this Lebanese intifada [for independence from Syria] is Walid Jumblatt, the patriarch of the Druze Muslim community and, until recently, a man who accommodated Syria's occupation. But something snapped for Jumblatt last year, when the Syrians overruled the Lebanese constitution and forced the reelection of their front man in Lebanon, President Emile Lahoud. The old slogans about Arab nationalism turned to ashes in Jumblatt's mouth, and he and Hariri openly began to defy Damascus...

"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq," explains Jumblatt. "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. "The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."

It appears that freedom and democracy are contagious, and woe be it unto the political leaders in the Middle East who get in the way.