Given the past history of American involvement in Lebanon, I am surprised that the Lebanese haven't worked out that they might be better off with a chastened Syrian army and intelligence still in their country. How soon before the
National Endowment for Democracy fetches up in Lebanon again. They and the CIA have been there before:
In Lebanon in 1957, the CIA supported Christian parties with U.S. government money and donations by American oil companies that wanted to insure a friendly government in Lebanon, a pivotal Middle Eastern country.
Wilbur Crane Eveland, a CIA officer, later described driving his gold and white DeSoto onto the grounds of President Camille Chamoun's residence in Beirut and delivering political payoffs.
"Throughout the elections, I traveled regularly to the presidential palace with a briefcase full of Lebanese pounds, then returned late at night to the embassy with an empty twin case" to be replenished with CIA money, Eveland wrote in "Ropes of Sand" in 1980, a history of American policy failures in the Middle East.
What is the betting that within a few minutes of the Syrians leaving Lebanon,....
the first caller on the Lebanese president will be a man from the NED or CIA carrying another full briefcase? What is the betting that within a few years Lebanon will be embroiled in another civil war. What is the betting that a few months latter, the US will sail away.
Don't people ever learn?
Tip to Juan Cole for the reference.
For a concise history of America' earlier involvement in Lebanon, read
this aricle from the Rand Corporation