Q - When is a coup not a coup?

A - when John Bolton says it is.

Hundreds of thousands of people drawn from supporters of Hezbollah and other opposition parties participated in a mass protest designed to force the resignation of U.S. puppet Prime Minister, Fuad Siniora. Fully armed troops and armored vehicles were deployed around the Ottoman-style building housing the office where Siniora was holed up. As the protests were taking place, various spokespersons for Western governments and their Middle-Eastern client states chimed in with their support for the corrupt Siniora administration.

Lead chorister in the pro-Siniora / anti-Syria chorus was (soon to be ex) U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, who predictably labeled the peaceful but noisy demonstrations in Beirut as part of part of an Iran-Syria inspired coup d'etat. Apart from the sheer ludicrous nature of this statement, it is highly ironic coming from a representative of a country that has sponsored coups the world over. Perhaps he thinks the only acceptable coups are the ones his country organises? Like the unsuccessful coup to unseat Hugo Chavez, democratically elected by a significant majority of the Venezulan people?

The UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett chimed in harmony, when she met Siniora to express UK support for his government, saying that "This is a government elected by the people of Lebanon and which has the constitutional authority an election gives it". I know that coming from the Nu-Labour camp, Beckett may well be under the impression that being elected is a sort of blank cheque... a carte blanche to do as you please. Perhaps she regards the 100 billion dollars that are reputed to have gone "missing" from Lebanese coffers to be small change. Maybe the corruption that is reputed to be rife in the Siniora administration is okay by her.

Singing much the same tune on behalf of Lebanon's former colonial masters - France, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called from South Africa to express his full support for the corrupt administration. Piling on the sense of irony, King Abdullah, ruler of the utterly undemocratic Saudi Arabia telephoned Siniora to extend "Saudi Arabia's full backing".