On Lebanese general, Ilias Hanna (a new expert on Syria cited by New York Times)

From comrade Thabit:  "Saw your post on retired General Elias Hanna and had to write to you because it made me laugh, especially when you said people who know Lebanon will understand. A Lebanese friend of mine and I watch Lebanese political talk shows. Whenever he's on we mock & ridicule him comparing him to Rommel or Red Army Generals in WWII.  We've watched him many times and noticed he loves to use foreign words, so much so that we started a game. As soon as he comes on we each pick a number and predict how many English or French words he will use during the segment. I won last time, I called 7 and he used 2 French words and 4 English in a 5 minute segment. Makes sense Friedman would go to him. "