Typically, I don't trust the New York Times about anything ever. The whole Howell Raines disaster that believed in journalistic crusades at the expense of Truth (read "Jayson Blair") and who's unabashed hatred of the Republicans in general and President George Bush in particular set my teeth on edge. Not that Republicans or Mr. Bush are infallible -- they're not -- but the assertion that they're always on the wrong side of any issue is absurd. The arrogant condescension that dripped from their Op-Ed page every day from every article reminded me of Pravda in the Bad Ole' Days of the Soviet.
So suprise, surprise, the Times ace foreign affairs writers Tom Friedman writes honest truth about Lebanon and Syria all the while sidestepping the official Times line that Bush 43 is puppet of the evil genius, Karl Rove. In a beautiful summation, Friedman credits the Iraqi people -- and sort of by extension, the Bush Doctrine -- with inspiring the Lebanonese people to throw off the yoke of Syrian oppression.
Nothing drives a dictatorship like Syria's more crazy than civil disobedience and truth-telling: when people stop being intimidated, stand up for their own freedom and go on strike against their occupiers. The Lebanese can't play by Hama Rules [Friedman's term for all out war with maximum collateral damage] and must stop playing by the old Lebanese Rules. They must start playing by Baghdad Rules.
Baghdad Rules mean the Lebanese giving the Syrian regime - every day, everywhere - the purple finger.
He makes his point as clear as a Polaroid and he's basically right. As much as it pains the left, George Bush was right about Iraq even if all the WMDs ended up in a cave in the Bekaa Valley of Syria. I just find it amusing that some of the left are actually starting to admit it.
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