e pluribus unum

Submitted by jad J. (Lebanon), Feb 23, 2005 at 02:22

Lebanon is the tiniest country in the region, but it has the biggest religious and cultural diversity and a tradition of freedom and consentual democracy.

This is not the case for the other regimes in the Middle East.

I think that after what happened last week, especially after the so long waited stand of the Lebanese moslems with the independence of Lebanon, Syrian army and services no longer have any reason to stay here since they are finally seen (by everybody now and publicly) as a foreign occupation and parasite force.

History shows that Lebanon, notwithstanding its diversity and the apparent weakness of its institutions remains because of the democratic values which make its "power", while a fully armed dictatorial and archaic state like the Syrian Baath regime has no chance to continue. I hope our Arab neighbours will wake up soon...

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".