The
respected foreign correspondent Patrick Cockburn had this to say:
“The
sectarian and ethnic civil wars that have ravaged a large part of the
Middle
East
over
the past 40 years are coming to an end. Replacing them is a new type
of conflict in which protests akin to popular uprisings rock
kleptocratic elites that justify their power by claiming to be the
defenders of communities menaced by extreme violence or extinction.”
His
equally respected colleague, Robert Fisk, concurs:
“tens
of thousands of largely young protesters demanding a non-sectarian
Lebanon
were joyful, filled with happiness, determined that this time they
would change the wretched confessional nature of their state
forever...The young men and women in the street shouted as one: 'The
government is corrupt, the sectarian leaders are corrupt, all members
of parliament are thieves — thieves, thieves, thieves.' ”
Fisk
goes on to explain: “The bolder street demonstrations become, the
greater their demands. And the cry for an entirely new constitution
that will utterly abandon the sectarian system of government in
Lebanon has grown stronger and stronger. There are many in the Arab
and Muslim world who will wish them to fail. Bashar al-Assad for one,
Sisi of Egypt for another. Certainly Iran. And the Crown Prince of
Saudi Arabia, whose petty “reforms” are now utterly overshadowed
by the real shout for freedom in Lebanon.You
can see why all the Arab dictators and kings fear this. If
Lebanon’s people – especially its young people – succeed in
their vast undertaking, then the millions of suppressed and poorly
educated men and women across the Arab world will ask why they too
cannot have these same freedoms.”
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