An Addendum

In a post below, I make reference to Hezbollah rallies featuring "a lot of angry young Arab Shiite males beating themselves up and cutting themselves with knives while carrying signs of Assad and chanting mindless drivel."

That happened. But it was what didn't happen that was noticable: the lack of car bombs or other violent means that has previously passed for "political discourse" in the Middle East. If Hezbollah has gotten the message that violence is no longer an acceptable form of politics, we've reached a new milestone. Not to get ahead of ourselves, because there is still a long way to go...but can you even imagine anything like this happening in 1985 Beirut?

It's spreading...