When Lebanon was in relative peace in the 1990s, Rafiq Hariri begged and pleaded with the US government to lift the air travel ban on Lebanon, to no avail. The US government under different administrations adamantly refused to lift a ban that was kept to be used at a future stage in order to extract concessions from Lebanon regarding "peace" with Israel. Today, the Bush administration suddenly lifted that ban. At a time when Lebanon is exploding, literally, in different locations, and at a time when Lebanon is on the verge of civil war, the Bush administrations found the conditions ripe for such a measure. Here, I can only quote from a poem by Ahmad Shawqi:
رأي الرعية فيكم, من رأيكم في الحمار