Lebanese Army and Islamists Battle for 2nd Day

Once again death walks the streets of Lebanon. We had the horrors of the Israeli invasion last summer with it's brutal bombing of Beirut, we had the nightmare of children being killed by Olmert's hastily strewn cluster bombs after the war was over, and now we have internal violence reminding us all of the brutal civil war that for fifteen years gripped Lebanon.

The Lebanese Army are now spending a second day outside a Palestinian refugee camp battling members of a radical Islamist group and raising concerns for thousands trapped inside.

Government officials said at least 60 people had been killed — 30 soldiers, 15 militants and 15 civilians — in the fighting that began when a police raid on bank robbers early Sunday escalated into one of Lebanon’s most significant security crises since the end of the civil war in 1990.

The militant group, Fatah al Islam, which is thought to have links to Al Qaeda, fired antiaircraft guns and mortars and had night vision goggles and other sophisticated equipment. The Lebanese Army does not have such gear.

Lebanese television stations reported that among the dead militants were men from Bangladesh, Yemen and other Arab countries, although the reports could not be confirmed. Security officials said some of the men wore explosive belts used by suicide bombers.

Around the outskirts of the camp, called Nahr al Bared, the scene was reminiscent of Lebanon’s civil war in the 1980s, with tanks and heavy armor rumbling past, occasionally opening fire at buildings in the camp, while snipers on rooftops fired at anything that moved inside.

It's a testament of the tinder box that Lebanon has become that all this fighting has come as the result of an attempt to arrest men accused of bank robbery. This has led to the deadliest internal fighting since the civil war which only ended in 1990.

That, of course, is the story that we are hearing. But there's another side to all of this.

This is being reported as if an attempt to arrest bank robbers has flared into something bordering on civil war. But this is ignoring the undercurrents. It's ignoring the fact that the west are attempting to shore up the government of Sionora, the same Western powers who backed Olmert has he pounded Beirut to dust have now, somehow, cast themselves as Lebanon's saviour. It's a bizarre situation indeed to watch the people who ignored his tears as he begged the world to stop Olmert's blatant collective punishment of the people of Lebanon for a crime they did not commit, now cast themselves as his partner in a war "to save democracy".

The truth is that Siniora's government is now desperately clinging to power, hanging literally by a thread, as Nasrallah and Hizbullah wait in the wings determined to take their reward for their victory over Israel, and that Bush and Co are equally determined to avoid them from obtaining it.

And caught in the middle of this tussle for power are the Palestinians, always the poor bloody Palestinians. Once again in refugee camps, reminding all of us of the horror of Sabra and Chatila, the memory of which might be the only thing that is restraining the Lebanese Army.

Bush, as always, sees the hands of outsiders. He relies on most people's ignorance of what is going on here to push his agenda. Predictably, he lays this scenario at the door of Syria.

"Extremists that are trying to topple that young democracy need to be reined in," President George Bush told the Reuters news agency. But Mr Bush, though deeply distrustful of Syria's role in Lebanon, stopped short of accusing Damascus of involvement. "I'll be guarded on making accusations until I get better information, but I will tell you there's no doubt that Syria was deeply involved in Lebanon. There's no question they're still involved," he said.

But there's another story here. It's the story of the neo-con support for Olmert's attempt to "wipe out" Hizbullah. It's the story of a war which Israel - thanks to goading from Bush and the neo-cons - entered into without a proper plan, and it's the story of a war which Israel lost.

Nasrallah and Hizbullah feel that it is time to pay the piper. Bush and Co are desperately slapping the bottom of the pond, muddying the picture so that it's impossible for anyone to actually tell what is going on here. Seeing al-Qaeda monsters and Syrian agents behind every tree.

And in the middle of this grotesque farce are the poor people of Lebanon. As is so often the case, they are the pawns in other people's chess games. And in the middle of this most recent spat, we have the Palestinian refugees, another group of people who often find themselves in the middle of other people's wars.

And as Bush has - in a rare moment of honesty - admitted, all of this is to prevent the government of Siniora from falling.

Which sort of takes for granted the answer to a larger question. Does Siniora's government deserve to stand?

When the US invaded Iraq they had enough power in the region to order the Syrians to leave Lebanon forthwith. As their power has drained down the Iraq plughole their ability to influence events in Lebanon has lessened, and their backing of Israel's insane attack upon the Lebanese last summer is the main reason that the government of Siniora now hangs over a precipice.

Both Olmert and Siniora retain office without anything that one could possibly call popular support. We do not yet know what price will be paid for the neo-con backed adventure that was last summer's Israeli-Lebanon war, but we do know that - in the interim - the immediate price will, as always, be paid by the poor people of Lebanon and the Palestinian refugees.

Click title for full article.