Lebanon: The Next Civil War?

Heaven knows there are plenty of troubles and potential crises in the Middle East, let alone the rest of the world. While many are understandably focused on Iraq, Iran, Pakistan or even Somalia, the tiny, beleaguered country of Lebanon is facing a crisis that could not only tear the country apart but invite intervention from some of its neighbors, not necessarily friendly ones.

It is especially sad to contemplate civil war and bloodshed in Lebanon, which within not-all-that-distant memory was an oasis of civilized cosmopolitanism in the Middle East; the capital, Beirut, was routinely called the "Paris of the Middle East." But the country contains enough ethnic enclaves to stymie many larger countries – Sunni Muslim, Shi'ite Muslim, Sufi Muslim, Druze, Christian. The Lebanese came up with a complicated ruling mechanism that gave representation of some sort to almost all the sects – the president, for example, has to be a Maronite Christian but he doesn’t have a lot of power compared to presidents in some other countries – that worked pretty well for a while. But eventually the difficulties of living together in a relatively small country bubbled over into a bloody civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990. Even though it was effectively occupied by Syria, the country seemed to make a comeback during the 1990s. But the days of relative peace may be gone for now. More...