Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Word on our little brown brothers
A couple of articles worth reading. First, our little brown brothers in Afghanistan have not been entirely grateful for the gallant services of our troops there and have had some hard words to say outside of the infamous Bagram prison:
At least 1,000 protesters have staged a demonstration outside the main US base of Bagram in Afghanistan. The demonstrators, chanting "Die America", were angry at the arrest of a number of villagers on Monday night..."We have supported the Americans for years. We should be treated with dignity," local resident Shah Aghar told the Associated Press news agency. "They are arresting our people without the permission of the government. They are breaking into our houses and offending the people. We are very angry," he said.
Extraterritoriality laws have a long and unhappy history of upsetting those who don't know America's saintly record of invasions and occupations. Anyway, apparently the troops were chasing four guys who broke out Bagram.
In Lebanon, which the right wing has yet to discover has long been a Middle Eastern democracy, at least when it wasn't prevented from doing so by outside intervention, the Beeb has a program so that we can know the players. Excerpts:
The Martyr Rafik Hariri list, led by Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim and Rafik Hariri's son, is fielding candidates for all of Beirut's 19 seats. ...expected to ...form one of the biggest blocs in parliament...has already secured at least nine of the capital's seats, with their candidates standing unopposed.
They are promising to stop corruption, which is pretty amusing considering the financial dealings of the Martyr Rafik Hariri in life.
Lebanon's two main Shia groups, Hezbollah and Amal, have formed the Resistance, Liberation and Development list in their heartland in the south. The alliance is fielding 23 candidates in south Lebanon and is expected to win most of the seats there.
...
And they are not the only paramilitary political party.
The parties of former civil war enemies Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and jailed Maronite militia leader Samir Geagea have announced a joint list in the Druze heartland of Al-Shouf district. Walid Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and its parliamentary bloc, the Democratic Gathering, have been at the forefront of the recent protests against Syria's influence in Lebanon. ...The Lebanese Forces Movement is a former Christian militia and anti-Syrian opposition group. Its leader, Samir Geagea, has been in prison since 1994 for assassinations carried out during the civil war. ...The Free Patriotic Movement is the group of the fiercely anti-Syrian Christian leader Michel Aoun. The party calls for the reform of Lebanon's political system on a non-sectarian basis and the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty. Former army chief Michel Aoun was forced into exile after launching a bloody rebellion against Syrian forces in 1989
Wouldn't you want to put an assassin and a military guy not unwilling to shed innocent blood in charge of your country? Eric Rudolph and Lieutenant Calley, for example.
Those are the best. Here's the rest:
...The Qornet Shehwan Gathering is an alliance of Maronite Christian politicians and one of the main voices for the Christian community's opposition to Syria's role in Lebanon.
More blogs about politics.
