The Bush Doctrine Continues

Lebanon is about to stage the third vote in the mideast in a year:

They were indeed, and as Lebanon this weekend begins an election that will take place on four consecutive Sundays, it has embarked on a process of rejuvenation that has at several levels involved the international community, particularly the United States. Those who accuse the Bush administration of incompetence in the Middle East because of events in Iraq may soon have to temper that with an assessment of its shrewder behavior in Lebanon.

Lebanon is today under de facto international trusteeship, and the mainstays of that order, ironically, correspond to what the Bush administration's critics would have regarded as ideal in Iraq: The United Nations is involved; the United States and the Europeans are reading from the same songbook; the administration has not used military force; and a heinous crime may one day be punished. Most important, change came through a combination of outside and domestic pressures, so even compulsive foes of U.S. unilateralism might approve.

The reason that things are moving swiftly and smoothly in Lebanon is only because the US invaded Iraq and deposed the Hussein dictatorship. Does anyone really believe that Boy Assad would've left Syria peacefully if not for fear of a US invasion? While the UN, with France in the lead, was a player, the Assad regime would never have pulled up stakes and quit Lebanon simply because of the UN.