Is it possible that the massive and angry public response to the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri– accompanied by demands for Syria’s Baathist dictatorship to end its de facto occupation of Lebanon– was encouraged in part by the end of the other Baathist dictatorship in the region, and its replacement with a fledgling democracy?
Along the funeral route through downtown Beirut, the Lebanese flag was hung from balconies and pictures were posted of Hariri, who was assassinated Monday by a massive car bomb that also killed 16 others.
Angry mourners shouted insults at Syrian President Bashar Assad to “remove your dogs from Beirut” — a reference to Syrian intelligence agents, part of an overall contingent of 15,000 troops deployed here since 1976.
