Fear Of Iran, Obama's Words Helped Pro-Western Coalition Win In Lebanon

AP:

BEIRUT Fears of a hard-line Iran helped swing Christian voters from the militant Shiite group Hezbollah and deliver election victory to a pro-Western coalition in Lebanon. President Barack Obama's outreach to Muslims lingered in voters' minds, too.

Now the question is whether similar factors will sway Iran's own elections Friday for the presidency, considered too close to call between incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a self-styled reformist challenger.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[Beefcake]

Here's another reason what's happening in Iran will affect us in America, from a Harvard educated retired counterterrorism analyst:

http://www.tremblethedevil.com/my_weblog/2009/07/forging-terror-and-accidental-guerrillas.html

[Mollabaji]

A total hogwash headline, as usual. Lebanese have no "fear" of Iran and in fact support its right to peaceful nuclear power. Whatever the "pro-Western" votes, it was the hundreds of millions of dolalrs that U.S. spent on their behalf to sway the Christians that way, but as Domestic relates, even that effort did not pay off. Shame on American interference just as they are doing in Iran elections.

[Doomestic]

The ones in the picture popping the champagne open are actually the Christians allied to Hizbollah. They are the free patriotic movement and their symbolic color is orange.

[Doomestic]

And one more thing, those "pro western" forces, were very much allied to Hizbollah in their last elections in 2005. The sudden "good guys" spin on them played by the western media just goes to show how juvenile and superficial the MSM in the west is.

[Doomestic]

This is the silliest angle yet. Firstly, the Christian voters very much voted more to the opposition than the to the pro-westerners. Secondly, in terms of popular vote, the "pro-western" forces got 650 thousand votes, versus a whopping 850 thousand votes for the opposition that "includes" Hizbollah. The attempt to portray that it is only Hizbollah is silly. The largest Christian block is still allied to Hizbollah.

Hizbollah's coalition won the popular vote, only 12 thousand Sunnis sent to a certain Christian neighborhood called Zahle to sway the election won it.

[bigbluenat4]

And THAT'S called DIPLOMACY! Go MR. PRESIDENT!