Fouad Ajami on Syria's Control of Lebanon

Post immediately below prompted me to a do a google on Fouad Ajami and I found his piece, The Autumn of Autocrats, on Lebanon in Foreign Affairs. It seems helpful for background, right now, on the showdown between Israel and Hezbollah (in Lebanon). The piece is dated June 2005 and refers to events earlier that year.

Here is the magazine's summary:

Summary: If the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri sought to make an example of him for his defiance of Syria, the aftermath of the crime has mocked them. For a generation, Lebanon was an appendage of Syrian power. But now the Lebanese people, in an "independence intifada," are clamoring for a return to normalcy. The old Arab edifice of power has survived many challenges in the past, but something is different this time: the United States is now willing to gamble on freedom.

Read it here.