When Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah ordered his troops to take over West Beirut during some of the worst violence since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, the Shiite militias' very first action was to neutralize all media outlets belonging to the Future Movement, the political gathering loyal to Saad Hariri, the son and political heir of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The young Hariri is a prominent supporter of the pro-Western government led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

The targets included Future TV, Al-Mustaqbal newspaper and other media outlets belonging to the Hariri group. Typical targets in any conventional coup d'état, the aim of which is to muzzle the opposition and silence their press.

The events which unfolded last week in Beirut proved a number of very important points.

First, it demonstrated the military and political might of Hezbollah and their ability to take over large parts of the country any time they might wish to do so.

Second, it shows the grave errors committed by various Lebanese governments in allowing Hezbollah to retain their weapons under the guise of being a "legitimate resistance group" fighting Israeli occupation of south Lebanon.

The Lebanese leaders should have taken lessons from the pages of very recent history of the armed Palestinian presence in Lebanon. Had they done so they would have undoubtedly realized that it would only be a matter of time before those arms were turned from pointing south at Israel and begin threatening fellow Lebanese. Until all weapons are removed from militias and political parties there can be no guarantee of a lasting peace in the country.

This latest debacle is a severe setback for Siniora's government who was forced to rescind on its decisions to crack down on the Shiite militia.

But the big loser in this story is Hezbollah. The Shiite group might have won militarily but they lost the respect and trust that they previously had gained from the Christian Lebanese community. Hezbollah's recent actions will serve as a wakeup call to the rest of the country, particularly to the Christian community who will feel the need to restart arming themselves.

This is by no means the end of the story.