Ba'athists on the Run

Back when Saddam was hiding with the fleas, a number of bloggers invented songs based on Paul McCartney's 'Band on the Run', such as this. Lyricists may soon be writing new parodies about Bashar on the Run. All thanks to President Bush!

Sure, the liberal media all week have been pointing to the large pro-Syria rally in Lebanon as a sign of genuine support for Syrian colonialism in Lebanon and for Syria's Hizbollah terrorist poodles. Leftist Bloggers are all urging us to take a Ba'athist to lunch!

As you know, people living under totalitarian dictatorships routinely take part in what are typically called "spontaneous" or "genuine" demonstrations to support the regime. Syrian troops have partly moved to Eastern Lebanon, but Syrian death squads and agents still roam the country freely. Not surprisingly, Levant News now reveals that participation by Lebanese in the pro-Syria rally last week was about as voluntary as paying one's debts to Don Corleone would be:

Pro-Assad March was Mandatory

Washington DC, March 23, 2005/RPS/

Levant News published in its edition of today that intelligence services, acting on behalf of the government, forced store owners and shopkeepers to close their stores and to head to the Mazza highway to join the pro-Assad demonstration that was taking place on March 9. Typical of every autocratic regime ruling with fear, businesses were closed and people obeyed the orders to show loyalty to a man they never voted for nor do they want to rule their country. Intelligence units, Levant reported, who were riding motorcycles and using taxis threatened shopkeepers that if they do not close their stores and join the marchers they would face untold punishment. The rest of the crowd was made of mostly government workers and students who, if they do not show up, will either lose their jobs or fail their classes. Syria is governed through fear, corruption, hate, and violence. No dictator in the world has ever yielded his empire to his son successfully and Syria is no exception. Copyrights © 2003-2005 - Reform Party of Syria

By the way, it is not only in Lebanon where people get paid to protest. Just ask these people in New Mexico!

One sign that Syria is on the run is the rapid growth in anti-Syrian Lebanese blog sites. This one is no doubt the best. The Left's theory that Bashar Assad is a swell guy because he is anti-American seems to be based on the fact that Moammar Gadhafi from Libya likes him. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi defended Syria’s role in Lebanon during a meeting of Arab leaders on Wednesday. In one of his strangest speeches, Gadhafi said Damascus should be thanked for what he called its sacrifices in Lebanon.

And for anyone still doubting the immense benefits from President Bush's campaign against Middle East terrorism and Islamofascism, consider what the New York Sun reports this week:

"One of Beirut's leading Arabic newspapers ran a searing critique this week of Baathist rule in Damascus, under the headline: `Why Lebanon Is Becoming Larger and Syria Smaller.' Except the author of this piece is not Lebanese, but Syrian, writing - at serious risk - from Damascus. Signing himself as Hakam al-Baba, this journalist goes on to identify himself as someone who has worked for the past 20 years for a Syrian state newspaper, Tishrin. And like the Lebanese who for the past five weeks have been tearing down posters of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, Mr. al-Baba of Damascus is saying he has had enough. In biting metaphor and with blunt fury, he describes how, under 42 years of Baathist rule, Syria's media has performed as a tin pot press. Reporters and editors have been required to stage Orwellian stunts in which the cruelties and depravities of the Baath Party are described as glorious deeds, in which 'their corruption is turned into achievements, and their profligacy into profits.' Mr. al-Baba reminds his audience of the days before Baathist tyranny, when Syria had hundreds of lively magazines and newspapers instead of a few orchestrated, official ones. He calls for a press in Syria that would be free to 'learn and make mistakes, get it right, fail and succeed' and write the truth instead of trumpeting on cue the party line… In Syria, it is forbidden to criticize the government. The penalties can include time in Syria's notoriously ghastly prisons."