Ackerman on Lebanon: "What are we going to do in response?"

Congressman Ackerman Statement From Hearing on the Political Situation in Lebanon

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, today delivered the following opening statement during the Subcommittee’s hearing on the Political Situation in Lebanon.

“A bit more than two years ago, on February 15, 2005, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, along with 22 other people, was killed by a massive car bomb.

Nothing in Lebanon has been the same since. Aroused from their torpor and disorganization, the assassination of Rafik Hariri, prompted the Lebanese people to undertake a long overdue democratic revolution and reassertion of their national independence. Syria's brutal gamble on assassination was intended to reinforce its domination of Lebanon. But rather than solidifying the system of foreign control, the murder of Hariri instead led to the expulsion of the Syrian military and intelligence forces which had occupied Lebanon for a generation, and the democratic election of a modern, liberal, Western-oriented Lebanese government.

Only a year ago, Syrian President Asad was answering questions posed by the chief UN investigator. The new government of Lebanon, led by the March 14th Movement, with a majority of 72 out of 128 seats was, if not gaining in strength, at least gaining its sea legs, and was working to build consensus on the most difficult and divisive issues in Lebanon.

But over the summer of 2006, Lebanon's hopes were nearly extinguished due to the war initiated by Hezbollah's unprovoked cross-border aggression against Israel...

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