Cedar Revolution of 2005 In Lebanon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cedar Revolution of 2005 In Lebanon - Essay Example The precursor for the revolution, as discussed in the Introduction, is the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri. The literature tells us that Hariri was in conflict with the political power in Damascus, Syria, and that this conflict was what presaged the assassination, presumably with Syria having a hand in the murder. It is to be noted that Hariri was given credit for undertaking the rebuilding of Lebanon and Beirut in particular after the devastating civil war that gripped the country all the way to 1989. Hariri was popular and his fight with the Syrian power brokers was a proxy fight of a large majority of Lebanese against the control that Syria wielded over the country, so to speak. These are very powerful reasons that powered a groundswell of support for the revolution, and it can be said that the murder of Hariri in this context was the spark that lit the revolutionary fire. That the United States and much of the west pinned the blame for the murder on Syria no doubt p rovided further justification for the popular revolution. On the other hand, it was the funeral march of Hariri that immediately precipitated the chain of events that led to about 20,000 protesters gathering and marching to Martyr's Square just a few days after, and which then led to the massing of over one million activists by the time that the Syrian sympathizing Prime Minister Omar Karami had resigned and the subsequent announcement of the complete withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon after three decades of continuous presence in the country (E-Collaborative for Civic Education, 2013; Singh, 2009). There are many reasons cited for the success of the massing and the chain of events being effected as described above, but chief among these reasons is the non-violent way with which the protesters dealt with the government forces that were sent their way to try and stop the revolution in its tracks. While it is true that the funeral of Hariri attracted protesters who openly asked for Syria to leave Lebanon, it is also true that the protesters reacted to the sending of troops to Martyr's Square not with violence but with flowers, and this allowed the protesters to deflect the rising tension and gain the moral upper hand in the situation. It helped too that the opposition forces were able to plan and strategize behind the scenes, and played some part in orchestrating the activities that led to the gains that they made in pushing Syrian forces out of Lebanon and forcing Karami to resign (E-Collaborative for Civic Education, 2013; McCarthy, 2005; Follath, 2005; Singh, 2009). On the other hand, from a geopolitical point of view, there are those who push the argument that the US presence in the region, and in particular the presence of US troops that had designs on launching a war with Syria on any credible pretext,