Robert Fisk: No Victory for Hezbollah in Lebanon Elections; But No Pro-Western Win Either

There will be no Islamic Republic of Lebanon. Nor will there be a pro-Western Lebanese republic. There will, after yesterday's vote -- for the Hezbollah-Christian coalition and for the secular Sunni-Christian alliance -- be a government of "national salvation" in Beirut, run by an ex-army general-president with ever-increasing powers.Washington would have preferred that Saad Hariri, son of the assassinated ex-prime minister, came out with a clear win. But out of the shadows will come the same crippled, un-healable Lebanon; delightful, unworkable, poor old Lebanon, corrupt, beautiful, vanity-prone, intelligent, democratic -- yes, definitely, democratic -- and absolutely outside our powers to reform.