Hezbollah Chooses Lebanon’s Next Prime Minister

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/world/middleeast/25lebanon.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=shadid&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 9:35 AM
Subject: re: Hezbollah Chooses Lebanon’s Next Prime Minister
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  Hassan Nasrullah has now told us on the one hand that he won't
allow any member of Hezbollah to be arrested for the assassination of
Rafik Hariri, and on the other hand that he will "respect the
institutions of the state".  Of course no legitimate functioning state
can cede the decision of whom to arrest or not arrest to a partisan
chieftain.  If there were a functioning government in Beirut, Mr.
Nasrullah might have long ago been punished for dragging Lebanon into
war against the people's will. In the absence of a government, we can
judge Mr. Nasrullah only by his action, and not by his
self-contradictory babblings. His actions announce that he means to
make Lebanon an Iranian puppet state.
Barry Levine