"This was really a warning to the opposition that they were getting a little carried away by all the talk of democracy and all the attention," said Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a professor at Lebanese-American University in Beirut. "It was Nasrallah's way of saying, 'We are here, we have been quiet long enough, and are now going to have our say.' "
Update: David Adesnik points to this WaPo story, which says the Hezbollah rally will dwarf last week's anti-Syria demonstrations.
This all makes me wonder why Assad has been so conciliatory so far. Has he just been biding his time until Hezbollah could demonstrate its support for the Syrian presence?
Captain Ed thinks not. He says the potent image of Saddam getting pulled out of his spiderhole has shaken Middle Eastern despots.
When Moammar Gaddafi and Bashar Assad want to assure the West that they aren't anything like Saddam Hussein, their aim isn't to convince their people to love them. They want the US to understand that they've learned the important lesson that George Bush means exactly what he says.
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