The tally of 15 years of fierce fighting is more than 100,000 people dead, three times the number of wounded, missing and disabled persons, and massive destruction of homes and infrastructure. What followed was 15 years of instability under Syrian tutelage. All this played into the hands of the most radical of the political class and the bellicose militias proliferating in the country. Thirty years in total that eventually forged a certain mature citizenhood.
Today, despite the many differences of opinion on governance in Lebanon, no one would consider taking up arms again to settle political squabbling. The Lebanese have experienced, with their own eyes and flesh, the horrors of war, and its consequences on families, society and the economy. A once flourishing country, it saw its development be suddenly brought to a halt, and missed the dawn of the technological revolution, as if sidelined from the evolutionary course of the rest of the world.
It is enough to look today at the turmoil within the political class on thorny topical issues such as a new electoral law, the budget, the wage scale bill, restructuring the electricity, water, telecommunications sectors, and environmental protection, among other things, to see that virtually not a single solution is on the table to any of them. And yet, not a single day goes by without a minister, a member of parliament, a politician or a party leader proclaiming his faith in «the virtues of dialogue, national unity, and respect for others despite their differences». Even when one of them raises his voice, he does so to swear that the conflict remains confined in the political arena, «in the name of democratic debate».
All this is certainly good, provided that this debate eventually pays off. But that’s another story.