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Source: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/069/nation/Lebanon_s_struggles_may_carry_lessons+.shtml
Lebanon - A Candidate for Democracy
(Boston Globe) Neil Swidey - In a desert full of despots, the lush green of Lebanon was always something of an oasis - an Arab nation with a vibrant civil society, free press, market economy, and the closest thing to a Western-style democracy in the region. Much of that was crushed during the country's vicious 16-year civil war. If Washington is serious about its democracy initiative, they argue, it should begin in Lebanon, both by helping to reverse the slide away from democracy and by using it as a case study to understand the forces - good and bad - that might emerge in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.