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May 22, 2007

I Would NOT Be a Lebanese Prime Minister

...for all the Dunkin' Donuts in China. What a thankless frickin' job.

Artillery and machine gun fire echoed around a crowded Palestinian refugee camp Tuesday as the Lebanese government ordered the army to finish off the Fatah Islam militants holed up inside the camp in the country’s north.

The fighting — which resumed for a third straight day after a brief nighttime lull — reflected the government’s determination to pursue the Islamic militants who staged attacks on Lebanese troops on Sunday and Monday, killing 29 soldiers. Some 20 militants have also been killed, as well as an undetermined number of civilians.

...The camp is home to more than 31,000 people living in two- or three-story white buildings on densely packed narrow streets. It is one of more than 12 impoverished camps housing more than 215,000 refugees, out of a total of 400,000 Palestinians here. Lebanese authorities do not enter the camps, according to a nearly 40-year-old agreement with the Palestinians.


FIRST thing I'd do is change the wording on THAT piece of toilet paper. Nothing like giving the Palestinians carte blanche to turn your country into the state-'o-the-art-shithole they seem to live for and thrive in. Besides, who represents the Palestinians, anyway? Last I heard they were busy whacking each other in their own streets, so declare the thing null and void, and go clean out that snake pit. All those campers can head on back to Gaza if they don't like it.
...The leader of Fatah Islam, Palestinian Shaker al-Absi, has been linked to the former head of al-Qaida in Iraq and is accused in the 2002 assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan. He moved into Nahr el-Bared last fall after being expelled from Syria, where he was in custody.

Since then, he is believed to have recruited about 100 fighters, including militants from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other Arab countries, and he has said he follows the ideology of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Among the militants killed in the fighting Sunday was a man suspected in a plot to bomb trains in Germany last year, according to Lebanese security officials.

Beirut security officials accuse Syria of backing Fatah Islam to disrupt Lebanon, charges that are denied by Damascus, which controlled Lebanon until 2005 when its troops were forced to withdraw from the country following the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.


Syria again, huh? Oh, that's easy! We've got just the girl to chat up Bashar and get this squared away. She WAS heading out on a fossil fuel burning no carbon offsets wing-ed transport for a global warming tour d' force, but I'm sure she could be persuaded to cover up/pucker up on more time.

The "road to Damascus is the road of peace".

Sweet Jesus, I tear up every time I read that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at May 22, 2007 08:03 AM

Comments

You couldn't get much for all the Dunkin's in China, Sis, because there aren't any.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at May 22, 2007 08:56 AM

Send San Fran Nan to those camps to negotiate a Palestinian style truce. That seems to be right up her alley.

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at May 22, 2007 09:48 AM

I put Dunkin on THS's mind with my email the other day. Every time I casually stop by a Dunkin (it's not that often, so I don't annoy her too much), I can't help but to remind her of the other reason why she's going to wind up moving North.

Posted by: John at May 22, 2007 03:32 PM

Hmmm.

Palestinians must be the single most unwelcome group in the world today.

And boy do they work hard to keep that reputation.

Posted by: memomachine at May 22, 2007 04:30 PM

And boy do they work hard to keep that reputation.

Truer words were never spoken.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at May 22, 2007 04:38 PM

And, by the by, BITE me...

Posted by: tree hugging sister at May 22, 2007 04:40 PM

...JOHN.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at May 22, 2007 04:41 PM

So this is why THS is all wet.

Posted by: John at May 23, 2007 01:10 PM