Hizbullah mass protest a threat to democracy, says Lebanon

After his heady success against the Israelis in last summer's war, it was only a matter of time before Nasrallah made his move. Now he is openly attempting to bring down Siniora's government with a series of mass demonstrations across Lebanon.

He is calling for the government to be replaced with a "political partnership" comprising both government and opposition figures.

"A national unity government should be formed. All the Lebanese, from the various regions and religions are invited to take part in the peaceful, civilised popular protest to express our beliefs ..." he said.

Does that sound familiar? It should to anyone who has been listening to Bush talk about what he'd like from Maliki. Is it any more valid? No. In both cases the calls for "unity governments" are brought about because the party's calling for unity do not like the choice that the people democratically made.

It is similar to the suffering that has been heaped upon the Palestinians for daring to vote for Hamas.

The truth is that we either back democracy or we don't. Bush, like Nasrallah, only seems to accept democracy when it delivers results that he agrees with.

However, the very fact that the Lebanese government is in this position is because Bush allowed Israel to launch it's devastating attacks on Beirut last summer. Israel set out to destroy Hizbullah, backed strongly by the neo-cons, and manifestly failed to do so.

This allowed Nasrallah to deliver that rarest of things; a victory for non US/Israeli forces in the Middle East. He's now determined to take the spoils of that victory.

The protest organisers said their supporters would remain on the streets until their demands were met. "We are planning a permanent presence until the cabinet resigns, and there will be further actions that will be announced," said a senior member of Mr Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement. Six opposition ministers, including two from Hizbullah, resigned from the cabinet earlier this month after failing to secure a representation for their Christian allies.

Some opposition members have threatened mass resignations from administrative posts as well as from parliament in tandem with the protest.

Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister who was so disgracefully treated by Israel and the US during the summer, was left mouthing platitudes:

"Lebanon's independence is threatened and its democratic system is in danger," Mr Siniora said in advance of the protest aimed at ousting his cabinet.

"Do not be afraid and do not despair. We have a rightful cause," he said. "Threats will not deter us. Manoeuvres and ultimatums will not terrorise us."

Hizbullah are far more powerful than his democratically elected government, as the US and the Israelis allowed them to demonstrate last summer.

Siniora is hanging by a thread. This is yet another consequence of the neo-con fantasy to reshape the Middle East through military force. They failed, and the consequence of that failure may well be the collapse of Siniora's regime.

Should this happen we will hear much about Nasrallah and how undemocratic he is. We will hear far less about how Bush and Olmert, through the stupidity of their military adventurism, laid the pieces on the chessboard that enabled what comes next.

As always with the neo-cons, there will be no responsibility taken for the consequences of their actions.

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tag: Bush, Lebanon, Siniora, Nasrallah, Olmert, Israel