There is something unfair in sitting home during a rainy day in your favorite armchair with your favorite cat purring near the keyboard (in expectation that you will go away for a few moments, forgetting to close the laptop’s lid and he will be able to rip out a few keys at his leisure then), while doing an easy fisk of another Fisk. But a man must do what a man must do.
Fisk, you see, decided to declare a war on the word “terror”. He obviously does not like it when applied to his Hezbollah friends and to their more distant Hamas brethren.
Lebanon is as good a place as any to find out what a load of old tosh the “terror” merchants talk. For here it is that the hydra-headed monster of Iran is supposedly stalking the streets of Beirut, staging a coup against Mr Siniora and his ministers.
That’s a quote so loaded with sarcasm that one wonders about the state of the author’s liver. Probably some irregularity that causes a sarcasm overload where none is due. Not if one reads, even inattentively, the interview given by Hezbollah founder and ex leader Sheikh Subhi Al-Tufeili:
Al-Tufeili: “Yes, Hizbullah is a tool, and it is an integral part of the Iranian intelligence apparatus. Unfortunately, all the elements in the [Lebanese] arena have become tools, and take orders from outside [Lebanon]…”
But a small fact like this cannot and does not interfere with Fisk’s eruption of bile. And of course, being so confused that being consistent is already beyond his obviously impaired facilities, he contradicts himself a bit later:
Of course, the crisis in Lebanon is also about Iran and Syria, especially Iran’s determination to damage or destroy any Middle East government which has earned America’s friendship.
Go figure what passes through his feverish brain when cobbling words together. Must be tough on him, no doubt. But the main thrust of the article is about trying to persuade the reader that the putsch attempt that is going on in Beirut and is financed by Iran, as it is widely reported even by Hezbollah sympathizers, is no more and no less than a social revolution. Not an open and blatant attempt of a coup, financed by Iran and lead by Hezbollah chiefs, but a grass-root attempt by the downtrodden Shia masses to put right everything that is wrong in Lebanese society.
Everything we see, read and hear about Lebanon for the last several months notwithstanding. And you were not confronted yet with this astounding pearl of wisdom:
“…Washington still doesn’t seem to understand that sectarian politics mean that Lebanon cannot have a normal democracy.”
No, there isn’t a lot to fisk. Back to the cat who is hell bent on destroying that laptop.
Cross-posted on SimplyJews
There’s a reason it’s called a “fisking”, his articles pretty much self-fisk themselves, auto-fisking you might say.
That’s the major reason it’s considered bad form to fisk a Fisk article. It’s like shooting dead fish in a barrel.
You got me here, Veeshir, but as it is mentioned in the title, I was just looking for a way to waste a few minutes…
It’s not just Washington that fails to understand what is so clear to Fisk. Most of the Lebanese don’t seem to understand it either, and are desireous of democratic government, not some sectarian fascism like Hezbollah wants to fasten onto Lebanon. But the actual opinions and desires of actual, living Middle Easterners do not matter to Fisk.