WHY AND HOW?I’ve been told what the Hezbollah organization is an how it came to be what so many millions of people seem to think it is today but the “why” element is somehow less than confident in my thinking.
In what condition must the mind of entire nations of people to allow themselves to be even tempted to accept the rule of such overbearing and demanding presence?
Initially, I feel, we must accept the fact that it not a “foreign” concept at all; not “an Arabic thing”. It can happen here. It has happened in some unlikely places around the world. We pride ourselves in being an open, receptive society and if any nation is subject to such a friendly “invasion” we are it. Many would think of us as being a prime target – a prime ready for the taking.
A major religious party in Lebanon – the Shia Muslims – the largest religious community, developed a “protective” force which assisted in forwarding their religious aims. They were successful in getting financial support from nearby Iran as basis for becoming “the Islamic Resistance”. Their emphasis on social nearby Iran. They showcased efforts their religious pretentious forms and medical care for everyone, won many converts to their banner. It established itself as highly respected part of the Lebanon government. They “augmented” the Lebanon military forces rather than “replaced” them.
They were “dissolved” by a United Nation’s Resolution in 2004 when 14,000 Syrian troops were sent home and the “militia” was to be disarmed. Hezbollah, a religious unit, was not strictly a militia .They ignored the U.N. order. After Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in February 2005, for which Syria was blamed, it caused affairs of the two nations to be conducted secretly. Hezbolla, at that time, was restyled to offer trouble to the Israelis. They adopted terrorist tactics as their method of operation and they imposed strict Islamic rule in towns and villages they occupied. It was thought that Lebanon might become an Islamic state but they the multi-confessional state was maintained which has lasted into our own time It was Hezbollah fighters who carried out the suicide bombing attack which killed 240 US marines in Beruit.
Do we, here in America , have any religious factions large enough, strong enough to cause us the fear, or even consider that someone might take over our government functions in the name of a religion-oriented theory? Could such a thing ever happen to us?
Most America would say no. But we might imagine our good King George III, in his advanced, unsteady years musing: "Who, I wonder, mis-counted the number of loyal Tories in those colonies!"
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-19-06 [c-456wds]
