Shlonkom Bakazay?

My gosh, Robert Fisk captures to-the-T exactly how I feel about former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. You must read it. While I did not particularly like the guy, I did respect him . And I cannot say so much for the President Emile Lahoud when I think about it. Yes, Hariri was a person to be respected. It is both a shame and a tragedy that he and many others close to him had to die in this manner.

Lebanon is built on institutions that enshrine sectarianism as a creed, in which the president must always be a Christian Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim - like Hariri - and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim. Anyone setting out to murder Hariri would know how this could re-open all the fissures of the civil war from 1975 to 1990.

Thousands of weeping followers of Hariri gathered outside his palace at Koreitem last night, demanding to know who had killed their leader. Hariri men toured the streets, ordering shopkeepers to pull down their shutters. Were the ghosts of the civil war to be reawoken from their 15 years of slumber? I do not know the answer. But that black cloud that drifted for more than an hour over Beirut yesterday afternoon darkened the people beneath with more than its shadow.

The killing of 'Mr Lebanon': Rafik Hariri assassinated in Beirut bomb blast - Robert Fisk: 15 February 2005