Chaos and bloody Kidnapping!

Once, the most hated figure in my dictionary,Stalin, said: "A single Death is a Tragedy, a million death is a statistic"...

First, we had political figures getting assassinated, and we were shocked the first time. Then the assassinations followed, each assassinated shocked people in a less tense degree, except for the ones concerned (George Hawwi: LCP, Pierre Gemayel: Lebanese Forces and Phalange).

Then we have death, and death as people living in Lebanon has seen a lot of it. A lot still have shadows of the civil war dwelling in their nightmares. A lot butchered in the Civil War, and almost everyone lost a neighbor, a relative, or witnessed someone getting killed there. In my building alone, four people were kidnapped, with one dead. When the poor two Ziads were kidnapped and killed in a cold blooded way, the whole terror of kidnappings we experienced during the civil war, came back to haunt me and my family. More interestingly, seems the whole Lebanese are worried, either from random kidnappings or revenge retaliations.

Then of course, we have the memories of the clashes with the Israelis. The Israelis always claim to fight Hezbollah, but end up bombing 80% of Lebanon, and no one can ever forget the 1300 victims, and 5000 wounded. Yet, the death of the two Ziads (with one who is only 12 years old) shock the very foundations of Lebanese social life. The barrier of kidnapping and killing was revived, depsite the fact if the kidnappings were "vengeance kidnappings" or not, the terror was there, and two kids paid for it (just as one died in the Arab University paid for it, accused in theory to be affiliated with the Shamass clan). No evidence who did it, some people say it is vengeance, others say a "third party is stirring trouble". Few camp supporters of both sides think it is from their own group who did that (almost rare).

If what happened was political, then we are heading to a more chaotic bloody chapter in the history of Lebanon. Already Civilians in Ain-Alaq paid the price for the political turmoil the nation is going through because of the greed of 14th of March and the Opposition coalition. The slaughter of the two Ziads already reflected how tense the atmosphere is: Sheikh Qabalan and Sheikh Fadlallah (the top two Shiite clerics) were among the first to denounce it. During the funeral ceremonies, even Walid Junblatt was giving a calming speech to break the intensity of the situation. Walid Junblatt more than once almost gave a "war speech".

Someone said it is the Qa'eda, but that is too weak as a theory applied to practice, for similar reasons. Al-Qa'eda and Hezbollah are arch-enemies. When the US army killed al-Zarqawi, Hezbollah were giving away presents in celebrations. The Hezbollah networks and their welfare system would block al-Qa'eda to build massive networks. Second, Lebanon is too small to allow al-Qaeda to be active in Lebanon. There has been one of the refugee camps that is supposed to have some Qa'eda elements, but it is under siege. Again, very few (if not a unique case) would support Qa'eda in Lebanon. They surely can't rival on Hezbollah's network (despite the fact it is Shiite in nature), not to forget the Muslim Brotherhood have good networks, with proper fundings (that cover the Sunni side).

These are sad times for Lebanon... but again we are living a temprarily shock phase, till things would be calm for another decade or two. As always, no politician is tackling the core problem of Lebanon, rather they are scape-goating the "other" and their foreign clients.

The Proletariat are paying for the greed of their rulers, and still hail them as their rulers, despite the fact they are suffering due their presence.

MFL