The Middle East's Most Colorful: Walid Jumblatt

"Assad is a liar."

"Assad is only half-human."

You might imagine that these are the arguments of a school yard fight - but instead they're the words of Walid Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party of Lebanon. Amusingly, Wikipedia refers to him as the most outspoken critic of Syria in Lebanon - and this appears to be a remarkable understatement. The aged, balding Jumblatt would be a figure of intrigue if he weren't so busy being a figure of school yard antics.

These tactics of name calling and insult flinging are deceptive however - as it would be easy to overlook his remarkable political successes he's achieved in the recent past. Through a clever manipulation of sectarian ties, he has managed to bring his powerful Druze faction to victory and success frequently, resulting in the BBC referring to him as a "political weathervane".

Until 2000, Walid was a hard line supporter of Syria - but with the death of Hafez al-Assad he became a sudden critic of Damascus overnight. He has also criticized the Shi'ite Militia faction Hezbollah for its absence of centralization and says, "Their fighters have done a good job defying and defeating the Israeli army, OK, but the question we ask is where their allegiance goes: to a Lebanese strong central authority or somewhere else?" in a Chicago Tribune interview.

He later went on to say, "If I were opportunistic, I would tell you now, `Long live Nasrallah.' I am not going to tell you that. I know my position is not popular, in the Arab world or in Lebanon. But I will stick to my position." This came amid cries of protest against him for criticizing Hezbollah's provocation of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War.

But his political stances are not what makes him such an amusing or known figure to the West - but rather the way he manifests his anti-Syria, anti-Assad messages. During an interview where he was challenged for criticizing terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, he was asked if he regretted his statements against the Hezbollah leader.

He refused, and instead said he apologized to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for a previous analogy he'd made of President Assad.

"No, but the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals contacted me, and said that they reject the comparison of snakes, whales, and wild beasts to Bashar Al-Assad. I apologize to that society. But I don't regret anything else I said."

Assad is not the only target of Jumblatt's often uncontrollable verbal rages. In his bouts he accuses Secretary Rice of being "oil-colored", decried the inaccuracy in the rocket attacks on Wolf Blitzer, and in one, elongated spew, praised the destruction of the shuttle Challenger, called President Bush a mad emperor, and accused Tony Blair of being a sexually profligate "peacock".

Although most would agree that many of his statements are uncalled for, provocative, and sometimes even dangerous - the West is constantly drawing to the Middle East Media Research Institute if only to hear what childish accusations the Druze patriarch has thrown at President al-Assad next. He remains chief among the most colorful figures in the Middle East amid a time of chaos, warfare, and violence.

Sources:

Institute of Druze Studies - http://www.druzestudies.org/druzes.html
Free Republic - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1681191/posts
Middle East Media Research Institute - http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1534.htm, http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1394.htm, www.memritv.org