WHAT EFFECT has the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq had on Lebanon?
IT HAS had an impact on Lebanon insofar as it basically instituted the Bush administration’s plan for a new Middle East. More than anything, the occupation of Iraq clearly signaled to Hezbollah, to other actors in the region who resist American and Israeli occupation and intervention, that the U.S.’s idea of a new Middle East is essentially one marked by subordination of these countries to U.S. interests by civil war, no democratic rights for these people, and the growth of terrorism. So it’s a strategy governed entirely by U.S. interests, protecting Israel’s interests, and at the same time a strategy of divide and rule. This is what all Lebanese fear, that this sectarian civil war in Iraq is U.S.-manufactured or U.S.-triggered, at least, and the U.S. is trying to implement a similar strategy elsewhere in the Arab world, starting with Lebanon. LET’S CONCEDE the point and say that that is indeed the case. How would it redound to American interests if there were chaos and bloodshed on a
