I hate to break this to the Bush worshippers, but there has been a building Lebanese independence movement ever since the death of Assad and Israel pulled out of the country in 2000.

As evidenced by this All Things Considered transcript from December, 2000:

People in Lebanon are in the middle of an unprecedented public debate about Syria’s continuing military presence in their country. Syria first sent troops into Lebanon in 1976 to protect the country’s Christians, who were then battling an alliance of Lebanese Muslims and Palestinian guerrillas. But as the conflict dragged on, the alliance has shifted. And some of the bloodiest battles were between Syrian forces and Lebanese Christian militiamen. Thirty-five thousand Syrian troops remain in Lebanon. Syria says they’re in the country to prevent any renewal of sectarian violence. But more and more Lebanese across the religious and political spectrum are calling for a reassessment of the Syrian role. From Beirut, Kate Seelye has a report.

(Soundbite of student protest)

KATE SEELYE reporting:

On the eve of Lebanon’s independence anniversary, thousands of university students, most of them Christians, gathered in Beirut to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops.

(Soundbite of student protest)

SEELYE: Waving Lebanese flags, the students chanted, ‘Syria, get out.’ After almost a quarter-century in Lebanon, Syria’s presence is felt everywhere, say the students. Syrian troops are posted outside of Lebanon’s presidential palace and they man roadblocks throughout the country.

Ms. DELUD ZALIT: (Foreign language spoken)

SEELYE: ‘It feels like this country is for the Syrians, not for the Lebanese,’ says 19-year-old Delud Zalit(ph).

Mr. GEORGES JABOR: (Foreign language spoken)

SEELYE: ‘If this continues, I’ll leave,’ says 21-year-old Georges Jabor(ph). ‘We’re all thinking of leaving.’

Not so long ago, the only Lebanese who dared to publicly criticize Syria were hard-line Christian political leaders like Dory Shamoon(ph), who has long condemned the Syrian presence.

Mr. DORY SHAMOON: It is really disgusting. It’s–for anybody that has any speck of honor and a bit of blood in his veins, this is–we can’t take it.

SEELYE: Few Lebanese speak as harshly about Syria as Shamoon does. But more and more people here are beginning to question the Syrian presence. They’ve been emboldened by recent events: the death of Syria’s authoritarian leader, Hafez al-Assad, who first sent troops into Lebanon, and the withdrawal last May of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, seen as the main pretext for the continued Syrian presence.

In late September, the Maronite Council of Bishops issued a statement demanding the implementation of the Ta’if accord which brought an end to Lebanon’s civil war in 1990. The Ta’if accord called on Syria to redeploy its troops to the eastern Bekaa valley, close to the Syrian border, by 1992. Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.

Mr. NASRALLAH SFEIR: (Foreign language spoken)

SEELYE: ‘Syria should have moved its troops eight years ago,’ says the patriarch, ‘but it hasn’t happened. They told us that as long as Israel occupies South Lebanon, it wouldn’t be suitable to raise the question. Israel has now left Lebanon,’ he says, ‘and now is the time to raise the question.’

Until recently the criticism of Syria was largely confined to Lebanon’s Christian community. But just weeks ago in a speech to parliament, Muslim Druse leader and longtime Syrian ally Walid Jumblatt dropped a bombshell when he, too, called for a review of the Lebanese-Syrian relationship. Analyst Shibley Mallat(ph).

Mr. SHIBLEY MALLAT: It was a very–quite a historical speech. And he did not call for the withdrawal of the Syrians. I think that the speech was much more subtle. It was one that was saying there’s something wrong in our relationship and you have to correct it.

SEELYE: Jumblatt chose his words carefully. He didn’t echo Christian demands for a withdrawal of Syrian troops. But he did say the Syrian presence should be reviewed. And he also called on Syria to stop meddling in Lebanese political affairs. The speech prompted a strong response. One Lebanese lawmaker accused Jumblatt of being an Israeli agent. Jumblatt has maintained a low profile since the speech and he declined to be interviewed for this report. Many Arab analysts say Jumblatt has good reason to be concerned about his safety. They note that his father, a charismatic figure and an early opponent of Syria’s intervention in Lebanon, was assassinated in 1977. Analyst Shibley Mallat says the younger Jumblatt’s statement upset the status quo. Lebanon’s Christians are expected to be critical of Syria, he says, but not its Muslims and Druse, who traditional sided with Damascus. But Mallat said Jumblatt gave voice to what many Muslims also feel, but don’t dare say publicly.

Mr. MALLAT: Jumblatt is a leading Muslim figure and one that I think represents the Muslim street. And to that extent, there is a national unity today which is happening on account of Jumblatt having taken these positions.

ers! Who could have imagined that the mere election of George W. Bush single-handedly fostered a widespread popular movement in Lebanon to end the Syrian occupation?And even before 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, and Bush’s supposed interest in spreading democracy!

Here’s more on what was being called BACK IN 2000, “ada!”

“An unprecedented explosion of Lebanese protests against the Syrian occupation has taken place over the last month, fueled by signs that American support for Damascus has weakened in the aftermath of last month’s Geneva summit between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Syrian President Hafez Assad. The emergence of a civil revolt that some are already calling Lebanon’s “intifada” poses a serious problem for the increasingly isolated Assad regime and its satellite government in Beirut.

The unrest began on April 13, the 25th anniversary of the Lebanese civil war, when a demonstration protesting the Syrian occupation was organized by members of the Free National Current (FNC), a grassroots opposition organization headed by former Prime Minister Michel Aoun, who was ousted in October 1990 after the Syrians invaded and occupied East Beirut (Aoun is now in exile in France). Three members of the FNC were arrested by security forces, two at Holy Spirit University in Kaslik and the third in Hazmie, on charges of distributing leaflets “harmful to the government and its ties with a sisterly country.” On April 16, security forces searched the homes of FNC members Patrick Khoury (in Achrafieh) and Tony Mokhaiber (in Bouggi) and arrested another activist, Maroun Nasrani.

Security forces beating student protestors on April 18
The arrests sparked a massive protest by over eight hundred students shouting anti-Syrian slogans and distributing leaflets calling for withdrawal of Syrian forces outside the Justice Palace in Beirut on April 17, culminating in the arrest of five students (Tony Atiq, Antoine Orleans, Patrick Samaha, Ziad Abs and Naim Aoun–a nephew of the former prime minister) and clashes with security forces that left at least four wounded. Security forces later arrested two other students, Rabih Maalouli and Paul Bassil, in a midnight raid.

The protests spread and gained momentum on April 18 and clashes with security forces intensified. The most serious encounter took place outside a military court in East Beirut on April 18, when internal security troops and army commandos fired tear gas canisters and water hoses and beat demonstrators calling for the release of several students arrested the day before. Twenty people were injured (one of them with serious and possibly irreversible spinal court injuries), including a cameraman for Murr Television, and three more arrests were made.1

On April 19, the protests spread to most universities throughout the country and attracted the participation of many different political currents. Security forces cordoned off universities in a desperate bid to contain the demonstrations (the students had planned to assemble at the National Museum). Classes at the American University of Beirut, Universite St. Joseph, the Lebanese American University, the Lebanese University and Balamand University were canceled. That afternoon, students were permitted to leave their campuses one at a time through security checkpoints. Another student, Jean-Paul Deeb, was arrested in Nahr al-Mot for distributing pro-Aoun leaflets.”

And, as early as the Spring of 2001, U.S. analysts were openly asking the question “Is Syria Losing control of Lebanon?” All of this was before 9/11 and before Bush even had a coherent Middle east peace policy, let alone a strategy for democratizing the entire Middle East. [Although some would plausible argue, he STILL doesn’t have such a strategy].

In essence, then, the argument that George W. Bush’s policies, particularly in Iraq, are responsible for what’s going on in Syria is preposterous in the extreme.