March 31, 2005

Dramatic changes in Lebanon in the past few weeks have pushed the country's Syrian-backed government to the brink of crisis. My recent trip to Lebanon made me an eyewitness to these events.

Following the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese people have been bravely demanding the right to rule their own country, free from direct foreign influence. The massive and popular demonstrations are inspiring and rare in the oppressive political culture of the Arab world.

But there are troubling indications that the Bush administration is taking advantage of the situation to meddle in internal Lebanese affairs. Such interference is in direct contradiction to very spirit of democracy that the Bush administration has proclaimed as its new agenda for the Middle East.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield has made two significant trips to the country since the Hariri assassination. But his meetings are shrouded in secrecy. The former American ambassador to Lebanon meets largely with opposition figures and does so behind closed doors. He also refuses to provide a public itinerary of his trip. Such cloaked communication contributes to the idea common in Lebanon that Satterfield is in Lebanon vetting candidates for Washington for the upcoming elections this spring.

More troubling, though, have been his statements rebuking some of Lebanon's political parties. At the same time that he offers support to the opposition, Satterfield has publicly stated that Lebanese political parties that are supported by Iran and Syria (a veiled reference to Hezbollah) must not interfere in Lebanese affairs.

Satterfield's comments are riddled with at least two problems.

First, Hezbollah is not a mere foreign proxy. After years of operating as a resistance movement against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, it has become a legitimate Lebanese political party that commands an extensive social welfare system in southern Lebanon and has several elected officials, including a Christian, in the national government.

Second, Washington apparently doesn't realize the irony in accusing foreigners of influencing Lebanese politics at the same time that it seeks to directly impose its will on Lebanese political culture.

The fate of Hezbollah and their arms should be left to the Lebanese to decide. In fact, it is a vibrant topic of debate among all strata of Lebanese society. Nowhere is this truer than among Lebanon's young people, who are the heart and soul of the opposition movement. Hundreds of them have been camped out in a tent city in central Beirut since the Hariri assassination, where they are demanding freedom, sovereignty and independence for their nation. I recently spent 10 days with them to understand their positions.

What I found is that Lebanon's oppositional youth yearn for their own futures and the future of their country. Although most are too young to have participated in the civil war that ended in 1990, they are nevertheless aware of the sectarian strife and foreign interventions that have ravaged Lebanon throughout much of its modern history.

While these youth universally loathe the Syrian presence in Lebanon, many see it as only the latest foreign power to covet their small nation for their own, outsider interests. The list includes Israel, which invaded the country in 1982, and the former colonial power of France.

One of the camp's youth, 26-year-old Waheed Yaliya, repeatedly told me how important he felt that true democracy and the genuine rule of law are for Lebanon's future. "The best protection for Lebanese society," he explained to me, "is if the law stands above everyone equally." But, he also had his doubts that democracy necessarily means the same thing to the Lebanese as it does to its meddling outsiders. "Democracy," he said contemplatively, "is a wolf and three sheep discussing what to have for dinner."

Lebanon has the right to make its own decisions over its fate, free from the coercions of Syria, Iran and the United States. If the Bush administration is serious about promoting democracy in Lebanon and the larger Middle East, it must let the Lebanese freely and fairly determine what is best for Lebanon.

Otherwise, the administration has come to the region not as a partner but as a wolf, poorly disguised in sheep's clothing.

Moustafa Bayoumi, who recently visited Lebanon, is a professor in the English department at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and co-editor of "The Edward Said Reader" (Vintage, 2000). He can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.