'Hama Rules'
Op-Ed by Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times, February 17, 2005

Thomas Friedman exhorts the Lebanese people to unite and respond to the alleged Syrian role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harriri in his New York Times column, ‘Hama Rules’. Syria’s motivation stemmed from the growing support for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the plan by the Harriri to use the upcoming parliamentary elections to produce a victory for the opposition party and send a message to Syria that it is time to leave. Friedman recalls that, “Hama Rules is a term he coined after the Syrian army destroyed a portion of its own city Hama to put down Sunni Muslim fundamentalists in 1982. Mr. Friedman contends that Lebanon should respond in a manner similar to the response of the majority of Iraqi citizens who risked their lives a month ago to vote in Iraq’s election. He coins this response “Baghdad Rules” and defines it as the event where an Arab public “…takes to the streets despite the threat of violence from jihadists and Baathists and expresses its democratic will.”