The Syrians Slip Away - Washington Post

The Syrians Slip Away
By David Ignatius
Friday, March 18, 2005; Page A23

The most frightening spot in Beirut over the past 20 years was Syrian intelligence headquarters at the Beau Rivage hotel. This was a place most Lebanese mentioned only in whispers. When the local newspapers had to discuss something controversial involving the Syrians, they would often refer to them with circumlocution, "a regional power," say, for fear that the men from the Beau Rivage would come and get them. Or worse, come and shoot them.

So you have to imagine what it must have felt like Wednesday morning when Lebanese citizens saw that the Syrian intelligence officers had packed up and left the Beau Rivage before dawn -- tiptoeing away from a city they had intimidated for so long and from a people who had grown to despise them.

Bottomline:

The brazen murder of Hariri finally broke the curtain of fear and silence. Lebanese braved Syrian troops and marched in the streets by the thousands, in effect reclaiming their capital. Their message was simple: We aren't afraid of you anymore. We would rather die than keep living like this.

That was the moment the Syrian chokehold was broken. The retreat of the intelligence men from the Beau Rivage this week was inevitable -- once the Lebanese people had decided they wouldn't take it any longer. That's the astonishing fact about history. It seems to advance in big, inevitable movements, but it's actually made one person at a time.

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"Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination
the more you slip sliding away."
.................(Simon & Garfunkel)...................