[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Bingo

The last thing I want is another personal insult battle with you, but does that alone give a group legitimacy?

A voter in any country may choose to vote for a party that gives them the best personal chance regardless of a distaste of their overall platform. Others are misinformed, others fear for their lives if they vote a different way. Heck Hussein had 100% results in elections in Iraq but was never legitimate.

Well, that really depends on your how you define legitimate. For example, I doubt many would refer to the rhino party as a legitimate party, and as such, they received very little support. On the other hand, a party like the Reform party was seen a legitimate party, even during their lowest periods of support, mainly because they still received a significant portion of the vote. Farmers for instance may have voted reform because they felt it would give them, "the best personal chance regardless," of any "distaste of their overall platform." Others may have just been misinformed. Others still, such as Sea-King Pilots or Submarine crew members may have voted reform, fearing for their lives.

Hell, it's likely a significant portion of Hezbollah votes were out of fear for their lives, but not fear of being punished, rather, fear that a weak Hezbollah would not be able to protect them from Israel.

Comparing the latest Lebanese elections to Iraqi elections under Hussein (or Bremmer) is absurd.

I think a group that wants to eradicate a specific group of human beings can never truly be legitimate can they?

I'm not Lebanese, and I certaintly don't know all that goes into voting in that country, and perhaps Hezbollah provides more than just hatred, but it's pretty hard to look past the hatred isn't it?

That all depends on whether you believe Hezbollah is actively seeking the outright destruction of the state of Israel. Personally, I don't.

I'm not lebanese either, but through research and self-education, I've come to know that Hezbollah provides much more than just 'hatred'. They provide social services, health care, education, housing, food, interest free loans etc etc etc, and are often the only means available to aquire those items. They also provide, as I mentioned earlier, the only effective means of maintaining lebanese sovereignty, an issue that binds all lebanese citizens, regardless of social, racial, or religious classification.