Wave of Freedom Ebbs and Flows

I agree with former President G.H.W. Bush that today's half-million-people-strong pro-Syria demonstration in Beirut (sponsored by Hizbollah, which is more a domestic political organization in Lebanon than a terror group) is "to be expected." Unfortunately, that never occurred to conservative bloggers, who kept priming the pump of pro-Lebanon protests as part of the inevitable wave of freedom pouring over the globe. The truth is that freedom is messy (to paraphrase Don Rumsfeld), and it isn't going to happen overnight. Traditionally, it seems that the problem in Lebanon is more about civil war than democracy, which is what brought Syria into the country in the first place. Now that we see where the Shia stand, and where the Christians and Druzes stand, we see that the notion of a peaceful transition to a post-Syrian Lebanon is less and less clear.

Of course, complexity like this is the wrong manner of thought here in 'Murica these days. Freedom is just supposed to wash over people and that's it, so say the Glenn Reynolds of the world. Well, it doesn't work that way, kids. Some on the right need to get a better understanding of the situation on the ground, rather than just posting pictures of hot chicks waving flags. Of course, when has ignorance of the true facts in a country in the Middle East ever stopped us before?