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Old 08-09-2006, 09:12 AM   #22 (permalink)
powerclown
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Location: Detroit, MI
Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
i think the monbiot piece was transparently commentary that lined up evidence about which there is not much dispute and drew conclusions from it. like i said, i posted it here because the question of whether hezbollah "has the right to exist" in lebanon or "has the right" to be integrated into the wider political process in lebanon presupposes (1) a clear undestanding of what hezbollah is (2) some sense of lebanese law (i am not convinced of the interest of posing questions about integration relative to some abstract notion of "western democracy"--which is an empty category, given that democracy is very different in different places and is minimal at best in the united states) and (3) the question posed is self-evidently tied to your view of the present conflict, whcih operates as the main context that shapes views-the article functions to clarify that context---the implication of much rightwing commentary is that hezbollah is some alien force in southern lebanon, a proxy for iran, and not a popular militia....referring to hezbollah as a "terrorist organization" says nothing about it analytically at all, but does function to answer questions like powercown's in advance--so such coherence as there is in the op relies on prior conceptions of hezbollah.
I'd be curious then as to how you would charaterize hezbollah vis a vis the government of Lebanon. Would you have an opinion as to why Lebanon, for example, refuses to deploy its army in the south to guard its borders? Would you have an opinion on the political relationships between Iran and hezbollah, or syria and hezbollah, or Iran and Syria, or Syrian and Lebanon, or the existence of armed militias in Lebanon? Would you have an opinion on Iranian ambitions in the region? Or, if you aren't satisfied with the way the questions are framed, feel free to frame things your way.

What is your take on the dynamics of this conflict?

Last edited by powerclown; 08-09-2006 at 09:16 AM..
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