Power vacuum alert from AP via Fox News,"Syrian Withdrawal From Lebanon Almost Done"
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian troops burned documents and dismantled military posts in their final hours in Lebanon Sunday, before deploying toward the border and effectively ending 29 years of military presence in the country.A few score Syrian troops will remain in Lebanon for a farewell ceremony Tuesday that the Lebanese Army plans to hold in a town close to the Syrian border.
In Damascus, the Syrian capital, a government official said: "Within the next few hours, all the troops will be out of Lebanon."
"What will be left are those who will take part in the official farewell" on Tuesday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity...
"Tomorrow everything will be over," a Lebanese military officer said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity, as is typical for military officials here.
On Tuesday, Lebanese troops at a base in Rayak, few miles from the Syrian border, will conduct a ceremony to pay tribute to the Syrian Army's role in Lebanon, a Lebanese military officer said.
Afterward, the token Syrian force will leave, and there will not be a single Syrian soldier left in Lebanon. The Syrians entered Lebanon in 1976, ostensibly as peacekeepers in the year-old civil war. After the war ended in 1990, 40,000 Syrian troops remained in Lebanon, giving Damascus the decisive say in Lebanese politics...
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week he was delaying until Tuesday the release of a report to the Security Council on Syria in Lebanon so he could confirm the full withdrawal.
What about Syrian intelligence agents?
What about Assad's stooges in the government and the military?
What about Syria's ties to Hizbollah?
They will be ALL THE WAY across the border!
Wow!
How long would it take for them to return?
Two hours? Three?
Wow!
What a breakthrough for peace and security.
"A few score Syrian troops will remain in Lebanon for a farewell ceremony ...
Hey great idea! Let's give them the same farewell ceremony they gave Rafiq Hariri!
I recall reading somewhere -- perhaps FrontPageMag.com -- that as many as 10,000 Syrians in Lebanon were recently "naturalized" as Lebanese citizens, and presumably, we aren't just talking about Syrian labourers working in Lebanon.
The pullout is a cover, after they "offically" pull out and the world goes back to ignoring Syria, they will march right back in after making up some lame excuse (I'll bet on border security) and start the occupation all over again.
P.S. Yes I'm new, if anybody is wondering who the hell I am.
The Kai:
As I noted above your post, the Syrians aren't really gone. Thousands of them have simply been redesignated Lebanese.
The Kai:
Welcome, stranger! =)
(And, BTW, I think you're probably right.)
Geoff
Rikki:
It's difficult to argue with people who have bought into a simple paradigm.
Ask these wise people what motivated Hamas to execute a young Palestinian woman a couple of weeks ago for the crime of appearing in public with her fiance. Ask them to draw a connection between the misery, poverty and illiteracy that is a fact of life for half a billion Arabs, petrowealth notwithstanding, and the existence of 5 million Jews in Israel. You might also ask them why the Palestinians didn't form an independent state between 1948 and 1967. Ask them why Arafat never used any of the money he collected after the PA was installed to build and improve housing?
You might also ask them what they actually know about the demographics of the region prior to the arrival of Eastern European Jews in the late 19th century, particulary that of Jerusalem, Safed, Hebron and Tiberias. The notion that all the Jews left after Roman times is patently false as is the notion that all "Palestinians" have been on the land since time immemorial, which is why the UN made a special finding that you could qualify as an "Arab refugee" with as few as two years' residency -- totally unlike any other refugee situation anywhere else in the world.