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February 17, 2005
The Word "Occupation" is Discovered
Thomas Friedman comments on Syria's occupation of Lebanon:
The message was that the Lebanese opposition to the Syrian occupation was getting united - inspired both by the example of Iraq and by the growing excesses of the Syrian occupation. Mr. Hariri, his friend said, was planning to use the coming Lebanese parliamentary elections, and a hoped-for victory by the opposition front, to send a real message to the Syrians: It's time for you to go.There is no excuse anymore for Syria's occupation of Lebanon, other than naked imperialism and a desire to siphon off Lebanese resources. If the U.S. government and media really care about democracy in the Arab world, Mr. Hariri's envoy said, then the U.S. has to get behind those trying to rescue the oldest real Arab democracy, Lebanon, from the Syrian grip.
...
When Syria's Baath regime feels its back up against the wall, it always resorts to "Hama Rules." Hama Rules is a term I coined after the Syrian Army leveled - and I mean leveled - a portion of its own city, Hama, to put down a rebellion by Sunni Muslim fundamentalists there in 1982. Some 10,000 to 20,000 Syrians were buried in the ruble.
Occupation to siphon off resources? Levelling towns that resist the regime imposed upon them? Isn't there another example? Let me think. Hmmm. What could it be? Gee. Must be some small, obscure country.
Posted by zeynep at February 17, 2005 09:23 AM
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Comments
zeynep, i refuse to invest any legitimacy in this supposed thomas friedman column unless you show where he cites an unnamed arab friend who happens to convey the very point he'll make in the last third of the piece about how much america cares about the mid east.
Posted by: dexter at February 17, 2005 11:23 AM
Wait a minute... now, suddenly, Lebanon is the "only real Arab democracy"? What happened to Israel being the "only democracy in the Middle East", Thomas? Now that it's convenient for you, you suddenly remember that Lebanon is also a democracy? Argh!
Posted by: saurabh at February 17, 2005 06:02 PM
Gee, Dexter, do you ghostwrite for the guy? You certainly have the routine down.
And, Saurabh, what can I say? Argh! is certainly appropriate. Argh!
Posted by: Zeynep at February 17, 2005 11:12 PM
In 1988, Friedman’s ‘From Beirut to Damascus’ was published. Edward Said reviewed it for the Village Voice. You can find it in a collection of Said’s essays called ‘The Politics of Dispossession’. Not only is the review a tour de force of witty commentary, it demolishes any pretence that Friedman might be something other than a corpulent windbag. Here’s what an Indian blogger
(http://rajeevdm.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_rajeevdm_archive.html) had to say about that review:
Rarely have I read such a scathing review of any book, no matter what the content! Ed Said simply tears apart Friedman’s book in this essay called The Orientalist Express: Thomas Friedman Wraps up the Middle East…
Posted by: sk at February 19, 2005 08:27 PM