Oh No, Not Hezbollah!!

McClatchy says that Lebanese elections could shift balance of power, and the BBC reports that Lebanese vote in key parliamentary election.

All we have heard in the run up to this election is the neocon drumbeat that Hezbollah is going to control Lebanon and sell it to Iran. Excuse me, but Lebanon has a 128 seat parliament and Hezbollah has 14 seats, which it is expected to retain.

The government of Lebanon is allocated to the various religious sects, with the President always a Christian, and the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim. Hezbollah represents Shi’ia Muslims, which is why they can’t get more than 14 seats.

The one thing that won’t happen, no matter who wins the election, is a census. If there is a census, there is no way of avoiding the reality that the largest religious sect in Lebanon are the Shi’ia Muslims, who would be entitled in finally getting a real voice in the government of their country.

The process is called “democracy”, which is a point that apparently needs to be made to Joe Biden and the Obama administration, as they threatened to cut off aid to Lebanon if the largest individual group of Lebanese citizens is finally given a meaningful role in their government. The vote that is important is the Christian vote, so you can blame them if things don’t turn out the way you want.

There are a lot of parties in this world that I don’t like or trust – Hamas, Hezbollah, al Dawa, Republican, Likud, BNP, etc., but it is up to the voters in individual countries where there are meaningful elections to make their own choices. The rest of the world put up with the election of the Shrubbery in 2004, so it takes a lot of damn gall to complain about who the rest of the world votes for.

The current government backed by the US and Saudi Arabia hasn’t exactly been a rip-roaring success, and the Lebanese people are well aware that the bombs that the Israelis dropped on them had “made in the USA” labels. Continuing policies started by the Hedgemony is not a good idea. The current government in Lebanon was brought to the world by the same brain trust that thought creating al Qaeda to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan was a wonderful idea.