LEBANON – ANOTHER TINDERBOX – AT 10:59 A.M. ET:  We watched recently as the extremist organization Hezbollah essentially took over Lebanon.  The Obama administration reacted with its usual dynamic yawn.  Now there are rumblings in this traditionally Western-leaning country:

BEIRUT - Hundreds of Lebanese protested in the capital Beirut on Sunday against the country's sectarian political system.

Emulating protests that have spread across the Arab world in recent weeks, some Lebanese protesters chanted the now-familiar refrain of "The people want to bring down the regime".

Lebanon is governed by a delicate power-sharing system to maintain the balance between the country's many sects. It is unlike many other Arab countries where protests have been against rulers who have governed for decades.

"We are here to bring down the sectarian system in Lebanon because it is more of a dictatorial system than dictatorship systems themselves," said protester Rahshan Saglam.

Lebanon suffered a 15-year civil war which ended in 1990 and killed 150,000 people. Major sectarian violence, threatening to tip the country into a new civil war, also broke out in 2008.

The organizers handed out a leaflet saying they demanded a "secular, civil, democratic, socially just and equal state" and called for an increase in the minimum wage and lower prices for basic goods.

COMMENT:  Lebanon's tragic history of civil war provides a grim backdrop for these new demonstrations.  An explosion in Lebanon could easily suck in neighboring Syria, which has inordinate control over Lebanese affairs. 

Or, to divert attention to internal problems, the controlling forces in Lebanon, especially Hezbollah, might launch a strike at Israel, to the south.  Hezbollah has missiles that could strike Tel Aviv. 

We wait for the administration's reaction.  Maybe it'll come after the next White House rock concert.

February 27, 2011