Lebanon Democracy Protests Bearing Fruit

The massive second round of pro-democracy protesters of 800,000 to one million Christian, Sunnis and Druze in Lebanon are having an impact on Syria (for great coverage on the protests see here and here).

"Syria Begins Packing Up Beirut Intel Office" according to the AP.  Here is my favorite line:

"The agents, protected by Lebanese police, then drove off in the trucks. A short time later, a doorman hoisted two Lebanese flags at the entrance. "

Another good step forward on the "march of freedom".  President Bush met today with the Jordan's King Abdullah at the White House.  In a question and answer session with reporters, they spoke on Lebanon and Hezbollah, Israel and Palestine, and fighting terrorism.  Syria must be feeling increasingly isolated as James Lileks so humorously points out today (remember Assad was trained as an ophthalmologist):

"I tend to think that if Lebanon is freed, history might note a glancing relationship between the Cedar Revolution and the deposition of the occupying government’s fascist twin next door.

And what of Syria then? Assad has been taking pains to assure the world he is not Saddam – which might well mean he’s a dead man. Saddam would have purged things to his liking long ago. Assad, I suspect, may well suffer at the hands of the people in his government who are stronger and more serious. The sort of guys who flip between pictures of him and his dad and ask the old eye-doctor question: Better? Worse? Better? Worse? How about now?"

Now the Lebanese need to completely throw out the Syrians from their country and reform their government.  This is a good sign.