Beirut Burning

The articles coming from some US sources would love to have the positive events in Beirut -calls for independence, solidarity of the people etc..(if any such things really exist) - be a result of their invasion of Iraq. At least that way something could be salvaged of what many see as a very costly mistake...This way they can say it was so that democracy could flourish across the Middle East that their young men and women died while killing other men and women...
Is that what's really happening? Is this the domino effect of democracy and free markets? Or are history and life and politics a little more complicated than just the idea of nations acting like copycats and having one big single reason for taking the steps that they take..
And then, events are not all that beautiful after all...Ya Beirut...Car bombs, Lebanese and Syrians trading angry words, hatred on the airwaves, people cancelling trips to Beirut, restaurants telling their staff they will call them if they need them and closing down, like other businesses, sectarianism rearing its ugly head...what will we look back on a month or a year down the line..which path will our brothers and sisters in Lebanon and our brothers and sisters in Syria have taken?

For now these are the headlines...
Beirut Car Bomb, Third This Month, Kills Two, Injures Eight Bloomberg
UN report sparks mixed reactions among citizens Daily Star

Memories of war, fear and friendship in my home city, where time has stood still The Independent

Murder of Mr Lebanon continues to poison political air The Independent

What the Lebanese fear most is not Syria's army but a power vacuum The Independent

It is not democracy that's on the march in the Middle East The Guardian

The road to Damascus Le Monde Diplomatique

Weapons of mass deception revisited AL-Ahram