C J Chivers is not a Middle East expert but he relies on Middle East experts in this article

Do you know how funny this sounds to anybody who knows anything about Lebanon and the Middle East:  "“It is the center of gravity of the regime,” said Elias Hanna, a retired general in the Lebanese Army and a lecturer on strategy and geopolitics at the American University of Beirut. “It is the core of the regime.”" To cite Elie Hanna on Middle East analysis is to cite George W. Bush on Germany philosophy.  I don't blame Chivers for this, I am sure that he asked the Beirut correspondent, Ms. Anne Barnard and she in turn turned to the Hariri press office who referred her to Hanna and another March 14 Lebanese for analysis.  Do you know what a caricature of coverage you now read in the US media?  Gen. Hanna, for potato's sake?   Americans would not get the joke but Arabs who see the "general" on Lebanese MTV would get a chuckle.