THEY SAID THEY CAME AS LIBERATORS, but the troops overstayed their welcome, and the local populace is getting restive:

20,000 Syrian soldiers remain in Lebanon, and Syria’s grip on Lebanese politics is stronger than ever. It is an invisible occupation, in which Lebanon’s leaders must seek Damascus’s approval of their policies, and Syrian plainclothes agents roam back streets, ears cocked for political dissent. Syria also supports the terrorist Islamic group Hezbollah and allows it run of the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Syria says its presence is legitimized by a bilateral arrangement with Beirut and is necessary to keep peace among Lebanon’s religious factions. And to some Lebanese, Syria’s stabilizing influence is a welcome contrast from the chaos of the 1980s.

But a poll by the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon, a Lebanese-American advocacy group, found 89 percent of Lebanese want Syria out. And its members are sharply critical of Syria’s influence.

It’s a quagmire!