http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0608100186aug10,1,5460126.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Lebanon's Druze leader says militants' agenda will lead to disaster

By Liz Sly
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published August 10, 2006

MUKHTARA, Lebanon -- Ensconced in his ancestral castle, perched high in the mountains above Beirut, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is articulating some boldly unorthodox views on the conflict engulfing his country.

As a fierce critic of Hezbollah and its role in provoking a war with Israel, Jumblatt has emerged as a lone voice of dissent amid the clamor of pro-Hezbollah cheerleading that has gripped much of Lebanon and turned Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah into a national hero.

"If I were opportunistic, I would tell you now, `Long live Nasrallah.' I am not going to tell you that," he says in an interview at the 300-year-old castle. "I know my position is not popular, in the Arab world or in Lebanon. But I will stick to my position."