Arabs Rise In Protest...

...Against other arabs!

BEIRUT, Lebanon Feb 16, 2005 — Mourners holding banners saying "Syria Out!" crowded around the flag-draped coffin of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and his family warned the pro-Damascus government to stay away Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of people turned his funeral into a spontaneous rally against Syria.

Along the funeral route through downtown Beirut, the Lebanese flag was hung from balconies and pictures were posted of Hariri, who was assassinated Monday by a massive car bomb that also killed 16 others.

Angry mourners shouted insults at Syrian President Bashar Assad to "remove your dogs from Beirut" a reference to Syrian intelligence agents, part of an overall contingent of 15,000 troops deployed here since 1976.

Where are the world-wide protests over this long-running Syrian occupation?

"Mr. Hariri's death should give in fact it must give renewed impetus to achieving a free, independent and sovereign Lebanon," Burns said after a meeting later in the day with Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammod. "And what that means is the immediate and complete implementation of the U.N. security resolution 1559, and what that means is the complete and immediate withdrawal by Syria of all of its forces in Lebanon."

The world is changing, and the fruits of W's policies are surely partly responsible:

Breaking with Islamic tradition, hundreds of weeping women waving white handkerchiefs joined men in the march.