Free Lebanon

[Undertoad]

Michael Totten is blogging from Lebanon this week, and posts this exchange from a bunch of gents in a tent city called "Freedom Camp". I thought this exchange was awesome:

Two more of their friends came over, both young men in their twenties. They spoke excellent English.

"Welcome to Lebanon!" they said.

"Thank you," I said. "This is a wonderful country."

Talk turned instantly to politics, as it almost always does here. A Lebanese-American I met in a restaurant told me it has always been this way in Lebanon. It's not just because of the upheaval now.

I wanted to make sure these guys knew a huge cross-section of the American people support what they are doing.

"It feels kinda weird, man" Hisham said.

"Why?" I said.

"Because we don't know what you want from us. What's in it for you?"

"Look," I said. "We live in a free country."

"Oh yes, I know," Hashim's friend said. "We really envy you for what you have."

"So we want you to be free, too," I said. "Americans hate dictatorship and oppression. No one should have to live like that. You're fighting for what we believe in, so of course we support you."

They seemed slightly wary, like I was blowing smoke.

"Okay," Hashim said. "Who decides what kind of freedom we have in Lebanon?"

"You," I said and pointed at him personally.

"Yes!" he said. "Who decides what kind of freedom people will have in Iraq?"

"Iraqis," I said.

"Yes!" he said. He then took out a card and wrote his name, phone number, and email address on the back of it. He handed it to me, shook my hand, and said "You have a friend in Lebanon now. You will always be welcome here."