"...one day 70,000 individuals assemble to protest Syrian occupation of Lebanon and its "democracy on the rise." Then a few days later 500,000 individuals assemble in support of continued Syrian presence and they're all "terrorists." I guess expressing one point of view is democracy, while expressing another point of view is not. Is that how it works? Go figure. "

Yeah sure and Saddam got 99.9% of Iraqis voting for him. And we didn't consider Iraq a democracy. Go fiqure.

"Now before you go apoplectic, I am no fan of Hezbollah, but the fact that a half a million Lebanese can quickly organize to protest in support of Syria, should give us all pause about the complexity of the political situation there. Simple-minded affectations that these people should be summarily dismissed because they're all "terrorists" leads to bad judgement and bad foreign policy."

Let's see, Hezbollah has a armed force of some 20,000. Syria has an army of a few hundred thousand. Surely just considering they have family members, you get some of these bodies to a square. Now, also I believe you or at some other Lefty wacko on this board has said they were in the same protest march which included, shall we say "undesirables" loudly proclaiming something you didn't actually support.

Also I placed a lot of significant upon 8 million Iraqis voting, despite the threats of terrorist. The fact that more than 8 million Iraqis at a previous time practically all voted for Saddam doesn't hold ANY comparison.

"I suppose your solution would be to what, exterminate all 500,000 of these people so the only people left are those that agree with you?!?"

No, my solution is that we will get more information as this story this unfolds, but I view any large mostly peaceful protest [even if it's sole purpose is for my viewing pleasure] to be a vast improvement over armed conflict and terror attacks.
So, surely a couple of reporters can be spared to actually talk to a few at random protestors and get their particular view is? The individual protestor certainly will have their particular story that they want to be known, instead of simply being part of some massive staged event.