The FPM And The Executive Order

The more ambiguous Bush’s executive order is, the more it can hurt Aoun.

Don’t be fooled by the color of his tie..

I remember when we were kids, our father had a very effective way of scaring us into doing something: He’d give us a deadly serious look, and, sternly announces that he’ll be counting to three.

“One…Two..” He never had to finish. We always scrambled to do whatever he had asked us to do, dreading the mayhem that could happen after number three. 29 years later, I still don’t know what would happen after number three.

David Welsh, the American Under-Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, knew better than to answer a question about how President Bush’s executive order could affect the FPM. According to the Daily Star, Mr. Welsh “pointedly avoided mentioning if or how this would be used against the FPM.”

The Bush administration knows that a direct confrontation with the FPM could be counterproductive. After all, the FPM is not Hamas, and democracy activism is something the FPM prides itself with. A perceived direct American meddling against Aoun could boost, not hurt the FPM.

Instead, the Bush administration is using my dad’s technique:

One.. Drum up the seriousness of the executive order and fuel speculation by dropping the words “FPM” and “Aoun” as much as possible.

Two.. Leak into the media news like this:

the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had opened an inquiry into a relative of a prominent Christian Lebanese leader who recently purchased land in North Carolina worth more than $10 million. The FBI charged that the salary of the man being investigated could not support such expensive real estate and is aiming to find the source of the funds.

Considering the business interests of Aoun supporters in the United states, would they really want to hang around to see what will happen after number “Three” ?