‘There Was Never Any Doubt’

Michael Young on the assassination of Lebanese MP Gebran Tueni in today’s Reason online:

There was never any doubt that Syria was behind his murder. There are those who will, out of sheer malice, demand that Bashar Assad’s fingerprints be lifted from the detonation device before they can believe such a reckless accusation (what they fear most, of course, is finding themselves on the same side as the Bush administration).

Never any doubt? Really? I could have sworn that just yesterday, Reason‘s Tim Cavanaugh injected quite a lot of doubt into the discussion when he described Tueni’s position on Lebanon’s Shi’ites:

Nobody knows how many Shi’ites there are in Lebanon (because there hasn’t been a census since 1940; CIA demographic estimates don’t break out the Muslim sects), but it’s reasonable to assume they are the largest single religious group, and Hizbollah is the most important party representing them—more prominent than Amal, the other major Shi’a party. So how can you keep Hizbollah out of the political process? [Tueni’s] response was that the Shi’ites could have whatever representatives they chose, but only for the limited number of parliamentary seats that were designated for Shi’ites decades ago, and that that number shouldn’t be increased to reflect population changes.

“Let’s say you and I start a business,” he said, “and we split the shares 50-50. If I have four children and you have one, that doesn’t mean my children should get 80 percent of the shares.”

I’m sure the pacifists in Hezbollah were thrilled by that statement.

Young, who argues for the US to step even deeper into the Lebanon/Syria quicksand, tells us that only “sheer malice” could explain the demand for conclusive evidence of Syria’s (and more specifically, Assad’s) involvement. That’s about as reasonable as saying that only militant atheism could account for skepticism about Intelligent Design. But honestly, I’m relieved he said it. Now we know — was there ever any doubt? — that Young’s call for an expanded investigation into the matter is pure baloney. Why investigate what cannot be questioned? Let’s get the Marines into Damascus ASAP.