Mid-East Freedoms

The fragile peace in the Lebanon may be under threat. Hizbollah, which is a powerful political party in the country as well as a well-armed militia movement with over 25,000 militiamen, called at the beginning of the week for it's mainly shia membership to stage pro-Syria protests and take to the streets. The call was met, with rallies numbering in the hundreds of thousands on Tuesday, dwarfing the 25,000 or so opposition supporters who managed to oust the sitting Lebanese government after their own protest recently. Obviously, the country is still strongly divided over Syrian backing, just as it is strongly divided in it's suspicions as to who killed Hariri.

Now, although Syrian troops are pulling out of Lebanon, government lawmakers are advising the president to bring back his pro-Damascus prime minister who was forced by opposition protests to resign. Nominating Omar Karami again as prime minister would be sure to enrage the opposition, which is demanding the creation of a government free of Syrian domination.

Meanwhile, opposition spokesman Walid Jumblatt is proving yet again that he will try to keep every option open to increase his personal power. He is headed to Russia for talks with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the scaling back of Syria's military presence, the Interfax news agency reported.

Just as an ironic counterpoint, the Kuwaiti government is under increasing pressure from a "light blue revolution" as women stage rallies and call for the right to vote. Until now, hardline Islamic elements in the government have stalled progress towards universal suffrage, but the women's protests appear to now be having the desired effect. My co-blogger Shamanic has a suggestion for the US over at Simianbrain:

The parliament has twice tried to remedy the political liberty issue for women in recent years, and was thwarted both times by religious conservatives who can't stand the thought of women being anything more than property.

If they fail this time around, I suggest that our forces currently stationed in Kuwait park some tanks outside of parliament to get the point across. America spent blood and treasure to liberate these misogynists, and they'd best learn to step into the modern world.

Lastly, here's an indispensable summary of the current state of democracy in the various Middle-Eastern nations. Handy if you want to check facts before expressing an opinion. Notice how many of the West's staunchest allies actually fall behind nations such as Iran in providing such basic rights as votes for women.