USS Cole deployment sparks heated debate
.The United States said on Thursday it sent the USS Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, to the waters off Lebanon, a country which has been embroiled in a paralyzing political crisis for months. The USS Cole was incidentally the target of a bombing by Al-Qaeda members in October 2000 in the Yemeni port of Aden that killed 17 US sailors.
Hezbollah slammed Washington's dispatch of the USS Cole as “military interference” while the Lebanese government said it did not ask for the warship to be sent.
"This decision proves that it's the United States which is interfering in Lebanese affairs, and that this interference has taken on a military slant," Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan said.
Former MP Nasser Kandil called the USS Cole the first “gunshot” in a war being planned by those who were behind the July War, particularly “America, the west, and their Arab allies.”
The United States shrugged off Hezbollah's criticisms of the deployment and insisted the show of force meant to promote stability.
"On Hezbollah's concerns, I would express some of our own concerns with Hezbollah's actions. So I'll just leave it at that," White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.
Johndroe sidestepped questions about comments from Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who said Friday that his government did not ask Washington to send the USS Cole guided-missile destroyer to the area.
"We have regular consultations with Prime Minister Siniora and his government, as well as our allies, both in the immediate region, as well as in Europe on the situation in Lebanon," said the spokesman.
"There's constant communication at various levels. But let's be clear: The purpose of the US Navy ships in the eastern Mediterranean is a show of support for regional stability," amid Lebanon s political crisis, he emphasized.
"I know we share with Prime Minister Siniora a desire for the situation in Lebanon to be resolved, and resolved by the Lebanese people," said Johndroe.
Lebanese Premier Siniora insisted that the government "did not ask anyone to send warships" in a speech during a meeting with Arab ambassadors that was broadcast live on television, adding that no US warship was in "Lebanese waters."
Before Friday's speech, Siniora summoned US Charge D'Affaires Michelle Sisson to ask her for "clarifications" about the deployment of the USS Cole, a government source said. Sisson in turn said it was a display of support and did not say that the show of force was meant for Syria or Iran.
Pro-opposition MP Ibrahim Kanaan, secretary of the Change and Reform bloc, said he doubts that the arrival of the USS Cole was a security message. He interpreted the deployment as another way in which America could pressure Syria.
The press has also held heated debates around what the USS Cole could mean. Independent, opposition and pro-government newspapers all saw the deployment in a broader regional context.
"The USS Cole is heading to Lebanon: the worst is looming," headlined the Saudi-owned pan-Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat.
Pro-government daily Al-Mustaqbal said the US deployment was a pointed message to Damascus which showed that "the United States has lost patience with Syria."
But the pro-opposition newspaper As-Safir said sending the Cole was a warning that the region faces "new wars which could spread beyond Lebanese borders” and that the naval deployment "is aimed at exacerbating the divisions between the Arab countries and pushing them towards war.”
Ad-Diyar, another pro-opposition daily, asked if the deployment meant the US was gearing for conflict in the region "because the Americans want to build a new Middle East on the bodies of the Arab people and grab their oil."
The US decision to deploy the USS Cole follows the February 12 assassination of Hezbollah operative Imad Mugniyah in Syria and a subsequent declaration of "open war" on Israel by Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The deployment also comes in Lebanon’s 4th month without a president, since Emile Lahoud stepped down last November amid political feuding between the ruling parliamentary majority and the opposition.
Fears of civil strife in Lebanon have mounted over the continued deadlock and warnings of wider conflict after the Mugniyah assassination and Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s threat of "open war" against Israel in a massive public rally the day of Mugniyah’s funeral.
Israel in turn has recently staged war games on the border with Lebanon, reflecting its concern about the threat after the 2006 war against Hezbollah.
This is all a continuation of the July 12th 2006 war on Lebanon which we now know was not just an Israeli war.. It was an American war mainly.. and if it were up to the Israelis, they would have withdrawn from the 11th day.
The Americans have been trying for the last 2 years to politically achieved what they failed to achieve militarily... but little do they know. In the same manner they misjudged Iraq and Afghanistan, they are now misjudging Lebanon. The "good" side to this is that the more mistakes the US does, the quicker it will fall... and thus, the quicker Israel will fall too:)
Imad Mughneyeh is killed in Syria on Feb 12th...
Spy sattelite is destroyed by US navy..
Saudi puppets officially warn citizens not to travel to Lebanon and later appoint their ambassador in Syria to Qatar...
USS Cole arrives in Lebanese waters on Feb 28th... and will be joined by another vessel...
Arab league meets in Syria in a few days without the US puppets...
A series of mistakes that are percieved by the US and Israel as a "show of force"... just like "shock and awe" was...
Now the US is shocked and awed in the Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel (=US) was shocked and awed in Lebanon)
The coming time will be interesting
Truth Seeker-- and everything the US does now is being paid for by the chinese etc..as bush has spent any and all money left and is now selling out the US to foreign governments due to his treasonous gang rape of the US taxpayers well earned money..and zionist complicity..these zionists must be exposed and driven out of this country or arrested and sent to gitmo where they can be waterboarded and forced to confess on all the american accomplices..people like foxman and dershowitz..traitors to america..