Snow and Sky: Topics in Middle Eastern Politics

February 28, 2005

Topics in Middle Eastern Politics

So for obvious reasons I have been paying much attention to what is going on in the Middle East... and around here, it's tough to get a good perspective on what people are really thinking. Here in America it's been a very long time since militias had any real effect, and what we learn in the history books is very far removed from what's actually going on today.

I stumbled across this article which does a fantastic job describing a lot of the history of what is going on in Lebanon. Maybe you 'old folks' remember a civil war in Lebanon, but I certainly don't, let alone understand why it happened. The article gives a lot of background and describes the formation of Hizbollah, a militia which has been getting a lot of publicity lately. The other interesting thing is that it gives a context for some of the public statements that have been made regarding the death of Hariri.

The article does end up becoming a sort of apologia about Hizbollah. The author is acknowledged as a Syrian political analyst; however, you do get a lot of insight into the facts of the situation. It shed a whole lot of light on something which has been portrayed here in American media as a black-or-white, terrorist-vs-freeman conflict.

Posted by kgutwin at February 28, 2005 10:21 AM

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