The similarities between Lebanon’s struggle for Freedom in the 1980s and Iraq’s current struggle keep mounting.

We see insurgents and mercenaries coming to Iraq to resist any attempts by the U.S. to establish a democracy in Iraq. As was the case in Lebanon, the world dealt with terror symptoms rather than the root cause, by putting a local face on this problem, rather than a regional one.

We see roadside bombs targeting coalition forces and Iraqis; we see suicide bombs targeting international interests and U.S. troops, we see drive-by shootings aimed at soft targets and Iraqi security forces. These diversion tactics aim to distract us from the root cause of the problem. Again, we give it a local image and we remain silent about the foreign influence.

And now we see a young Shiite cleric, Muqtada Al-Sadr, trying to imitate what Hassan Nasrallah of Hizbollah did in Lebanon in the early 1980s. Coincidentally, it was then when international peacekeeping troops, led by the U.S., intervened in Lebanon’s affairs to establish a democracy in Lebanon and put an end to the civil war.

We all remember the attacks on the Marine barracks in Beirut that left 243 dead Marines, and the attacks on the U.S. embassy in Lebanon. Yet with all the evidence pointing at Hizbollah, Iran and Syria, the U.S. kept silent, justice was never served and no one was held accountable. Hizbollah was allowed to emerge as a major power in Lebanon, largely due to U.S. and other peacekeeping troops withdrawing from Lebanon after taking heavy casualties. This move indirectly allowed Hizbollah, a Syrian/Iranian sponsored group to exist.

The U.S. must deal with the Mahdi army of Al-Sadr in its early development stages, rather that create another monster in the Middle East.

If the U.S. does not deal with Al-Sadr, sooner or later, it will find itself having to deal with two monsters, Hizbollah and Mahdi's Army, both with Iranian and Syrian ties.

For too long, the world remained silent about Syrian and Iranian influence in Lebanon. Will the free world make the same mistake in Iraq?

For too long, we turned a blind eye on Iran and Syria thus allowing them to operate in the shadows of these local militias in Iraq.

The War on terror will not be won unless Syria and Iran are confronted and this has to occur shortly after the transfer of power in Iraq....not after the November elections.

Neither the current Syrian nor the current Iranian regime has a vested interest in a free and democratic Iraq. For a free and democratic Iraq does not compliment their landscape. Both will do whatever it takes to see the U.S. fail in Iraq. Both continue to deal with the U.S. of the 1980s and 1990s. Neither one realizes that the U.S. of today is the new and improved, one that will hopefully no longer tolerate such regimes, especially in Iraq’s front and backyard.

What the U.S. must understand is that the Iranian and Syrian regimes of today are no different than the Iranian and Syrian regimes of yesterday. Let us not forget recent history. For “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it”.

© Copyright 1997-2004 United States Committee For A Free Lebanon. All rights reserved.

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