Instapundit: Lebanese Like Being Bombed

The Pithlord is old enough to remember much hoopla in the blogosphere about the Lebanese Cedar Revolution of 2005. Crowds peacefully protesting the assassination of their Prime Minister, an event everyone thought Syria was responsible for, led to genuine national independence for that troubled country.

The hoopla was understandable, although in Glenn Reynolds hands, a bit embarrassing (the Pithlord has nothing against geeky adolescent male autosexuality, but he thinks it should be kept under the mattresses of the funky-smelling bedrooms of the nation and not confused with political analysis).

But what happens now that post-Cedar Revolution Lebanon is attacked. What are the knights boldly standing for the right of hot Lebanese women to party without foreign occupation saying nowadays?

Saith the Instapundit:

After the excitement of the Cedar Revolution, this is depressing, of course. But it's interesting to see that many Lebanese are angry at Hezbollah, and of course getting Syrian influence out of Lebanon was one of the main points of the Cedar Revolution, and something that was only partially accomplished. The Israelis may finish what the Lebanese started, and that would be a good thing.

In short, the Lebanese like having their airports bombed. It furthers the Revolution.

The Pithlord noticed that no actual Lebanese were quoted, of course. And it does seem out of keeping with what we know of human nature, although we all recall how New Yorkers reacted to 9/11 with delight because it might finish the struggle against the Republican Party.

But what I really wonder about is when all the gun-nut "libertarian" techno-nationalists started sounding like commies? The "Revolution" as an abstract noun, the interests of the people furthered by repressing said people, the unfolding of human history as justification for squalid massacres... where have we seen this movie before?

Update July 16, 2006: It appears that actual Lebanese, some of whom write Enlgish and have blogs, did not comply with Instapundit's rich fantasy life, and instead complained about the attack on their country and America's complicity. The response from the rightie bloggers was, of course, to tell Lebanese refugees that they are "weak" and "need to grow up."

After 9/11, Americans would have better off admitting to themselves that they were feeling tribal bloodlust, and wanted to punish Arabs for what Arabs had done to them. That's human enough. I really believe Americans would be too civilized to act on this impulse if they had been willing to recognize it. But to pretend that what they wanted was to bring democracy to the Arab world, to "liberate" -- that was folly. And it was folly for those like Makiya who believed it.