Lee Sustar, Chicago
It's still far from clear who ordered the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut on February 14. But under the guise of the "war on terror", the US is seizing an opportunity. Washington is working alongside Israel to squeeze Syria — the dominant power in Lebanon — plus curtail Iran's influence as well.
If the bombing that killed Hariri raises the prospect of renewed civil war in Lebanon, it's most of all because of the US-Israeli drive to consolidate their grip on the Middle East.
The US rattled its sabers at Syria immediately after Washington's conquest of Iraq in 2003, blaming Syria for allowing "foreign fighters" to cross into Iraq to fight the occupation — and even claiming that it was hiding Saddam Hussein's nonexistent "weapons of mass destruction."
In October 2003, the US Congress passed the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, which called for a withdrawal of 15,000 Syrian troops who have been in Lebanon since the civil war of the 1970s.
The bill also includes "findings" and "sense of Congress" language denouncing Syria for its ties to Hezbollah, Lebanon's Shiite Islam party, for hosting offices of Palestinian militant groups, supposedly developing missiles and other advanced weapons systems and more.
All this was true in 1991 as well, but the US quietly blessed Syria's role in controlling Lebanon, after civil war had divided Sunni, Shiite and Druze Muslims, Christians, Palestinians and other groups. Then Syria had joined up with the US to back the first Gulf War on Iraq.
However, Syria opposed the March 2003 US invasion of Iraq — and now, Washington has Syria in the crosshairs.
The pressure on Syria has gone beyond words. Israeli jets bombed a supposed "terrorist training camp" nine miles outside of the capital of Damascus on October 5, 2003 — the first military attack on Syria by Israel in 30 years. The bombing was almost certainly green-lighted by Washington, and US President George Bush signed the Syria sanctions law in 2003.
The unexpected rise of the resistance in Iraq, however, forced the US to shelve possible plans for further intervention in Syria. Instead, Washington was confronted with a new problem — how to manage Iraqi elections that were sure to be won by Shiite parties, which could give the Shiite Muslim government in Iran more influence in Iraq, as well as through Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Hariri assassination is only the latest manifestation of the crisis in Lebanon. Last September, former Lebanese foreign minister Marwan Hamadeh barely survived an assassination attempt. Then, in November, Syria moved to shore up its position in Lebanon by using its effective control of the Lebanese parliament to extend the presidency of Emile Lahoud to a second six-year term.
The US seized the opportunity to join with France to push through United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, which called for a withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon. The US, of course, wasn't interested in such resolutions during Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon — which lasted from the Israeli invasion of the country in 1982 until 2000, when Hezbollah militants finally forced it to withdraw.
The US itself sent foreign troops to Lebanon in 1958 and again in 1983, when it was forced to withdraw after 241 military personnel were killed by a truck bomb.
Now Washington wants a Lebanon free of Syrian influence to serve as a further beachhead for US imperial power in the Middle East. Meanwhile, France, the historic colonial power in Lebanon, sees the opportunity to get back in the game. Both governments hope to further their interest by harnessing the anti-Syria backlash in Lebanon over Hariri's death.
Hariri, however, wasn't quite the Lebanese nationalist hero he's made out to be. A billionaire who made his fortune as a construction contractor to the Saudi royal family, he made plenty of Syrians rich while orchestrating a building boom in Beirut since the 1990s.
Nevertheless, his death has caused a backlash. Lebanese from across sectarian religious and political lines resent the fact that 100,000 Syrian workers are in Lebanon, often occupying the best jobs and getting favorable treatment.
That's why Hariri's death has spurred huge mobilisations. Imperialist meddling in Lebanon, however, only raises the likelihood of more bloodshed — and even a renewed civil war in Lebanon. But that's less important to Washington than securing its hold on the Middle East.
[From Socialist Worker, weekly paper of the US International Socialist Organization. Visit <http://www.socialistworker.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 9, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.