New Arab Spring

I been seeing Western media say "Blame it on Iran."

BUT, Guess what country most people in Iraq and Lebanon blame most things on?

The country that set up the sectarian representative government in Iraq, modeled on the one in Lebanon?

The country that's long been the favorite of the corrupt neoliberal oligarchs of Lebanon, who have long been clients of IMF?

The country that people in Iraq and Lebanon least want to intervene to "help" them with their issues?

Meanwhile, about the only honest organization, the one that more people trust than any other, is Hezbollah linked to Iran.  Hezbollah had a non-disapproval stance toward the protests from the beginning, and members of Hezbollah are participating, and non-oligarch Lebanese trust them.

I have several expats including a honest seeming professor in California who say the protests are legitimate, including the echo of the "the regime must go" from earlier (and misbegotten and poorly ending) Arab Spring protests.

However, in this regards I'm still siding with MoonOfAlabama, in that whatever legitimacy they may have had in Lebanon is quickly undone by the media controlling oligarchs there, and CIA in Iraq, and the lack of positive organization.  A better strategy would be to win some concessions (already happened), then quiet down, and rise up again as needed to enforce those concessions, at least partly through the existing if corrupt political process.  But you can't do that without real organization.  Otherwise, you're back to sectarian sniping, which is doomed by design to fail.

So, in my humble opinion, it looks like the wrong strategy and probably won't end well, despite all the good people in it and for it.

The bottom line: Organize first, then Protest.

Organization in Lebanon and elsewhere HAS to be along class lines (non-oligarch vs oligarch) and not sectarian.

Some understand that, but there doesn't seem to be enough organization to keep it that way.

Endless chaos IS the tool of Empire, especially OUR Empire.

I hope I'm wrong.

Protests in Chile seem more promising: there is a better understanding of class and less sectarianism.