Change in Lebanon

"Government falls under the pressure of the people and the hammer of the opposition," said Al-Mustaqbal daily, owned by the late Hariri.

"People power brings down Karami's cabinet," the headline in Beirut's English-language Daily Star newspaper read.

"Electricity is in the air. Beirut is a sea of excitement, and activity and turmoil," it said in an editorial. "The word 'revolution' is on many lips."

The Daily Star urged the opposition and loyalists alike to grasp the full magnitude of the popular movement and heed its wishes for a new Lebanon.

"And Syria should consider what is happening in a somber manner and not thwart the ideals demonstrated by Lebanon's youth: It is, indeed, the time for change," it said.

Syria plays a dominant role in Lebanon and maintains 14,000 troops there. Pressure has been growing within Lebanon and from abroad for a complete military withdrawal.

Protesters have gathered in Martyrs' Square, which they dubbed Freedom Square, ever since Hariri's assassination on Feb. 14 to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops and the resignation of all top pro-Syrian political and security officials.
  Reuters article

I don't know much of anything about Lebanon and Syria, but what I do know is that Washington's hand is in whatever political events occur there.

Juan Cole has a post outlining the settlement and religious and political history of Lebanon. In it, he says:

Lebanon had a relatively free parliamentary democracy 1943-1956. In 1957, I have been told by a former US government official, the US CIA intervened covertly in the Lebanese elections to ensure that the Lebanese constitution would be amended to allow far-right Maronite President Camille Chamoun (1952-1958) to have a second term.

[...]

Chamoun was unacceptable to the Druze and to the Sunni nationalists newly under the influence of Gamal Abdul Nasser in Egypt. A small civil war broke out. Chamoun lied to Eisenhower and told him that the Druze goatherds were Communists, and Ike dutifully sent in the Marines to save Chamoun in 1958. Thereafter the Maronites erected a police state, with much power in the Dueuxieme Bureau or secret police.

[...]

In spring of 1976 the Syrians sent 40,000 troops into Lebanon and massacred the Palestinian fighters, saving the Maronites, with Israeli and US approval. [Emphasis added]

All the while Washington spouts about democracy, could somebody please count up for me the number of democratically elected governments we have destroyed through CIA or economic intervention because the people had not elected governments "in our best interest"?

Read Cole's post. It's very interesting.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.