[Spectator-UK] Michael Young - The Lebanese people have watched as Hizballah has built up a heavily armed state-within-a-state that has now carried the country into a devastating conflict it cannot win, and many are fed up. Sunni Muslims, Christians, and the Druze have no desire to pay for the martial vanity of Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Some even welcome Israel's intervention. As one Lebanese politician said to me in private, Israel must not stop now: "For things to get better in Lebanon, Nasrallah must be weakened further." Even some Shiites are beginning to have doubts about Nasrallah. Hizballah's so-called "security perimeter" in southern Beirut where Nasrallah and his officials lived and worked has been reduced to a smoldering wasteland. Nasrallah is also blamed for the suffering in southern Lebanon. The writer is opinion editor of the Daily Star in Lebanon.
2006-07-26 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive