Asteroid Aoun15FPM-070505

Today, Lebanon is bracing for the return of General Michael Aoun, an army commander who assumed the role of prime minister in the final phase of the Lebanese war. He was exiled to France after he failed to defeat the Syrian Army thrust into all of Lebanon and has been an active voice in the opposition to Syrian hegemony for the past 15 years from his residence in Paris and through his Free Patriotic Movement on the ground.

I was only 12 years old when he was exiled to France and to say that I remember the events of that period would be false.
What I do recall is hearing his name peppered into many newscasts and heated political debates. And today, at 5 pm, he will be back.

Some Lebanese are overjoyed, others are modestly content, and yet others are privately enraged. One Lebanese politician today described the return as a political 'tsunami', to go along with the 'earthquake' of Hariri's assassination.

I don't pretend to have the political savvy to analyze the many dimensions of this return.

I'd rather think of it as an asteroid impact:
Too weak and it will fizzle away, too strong and it can annihilate the planet.

Gently does it...