From Beirut to Baghdad - The ghastly predictability of nihilist violence.

slate.com ^ | Nov. 27, 2006 | Christopher Hitchens

[neverdem]

The fate of those who criticize the Syrian presence in Lebanon is rather like the fate of those who oppose Vladimir Putin. The former are shot or blown up, and the latter are victims of exotic poisons. Nobody knows for sure if there is any direct connection between the positions they take and the outcome that befalls them, but it has to be said in both cases that neither the government of Syria nor the face of Vladimir Putin seems very downcast or contrite when these coincidences occur. And, as Gen. Strelnikov so rightly says in Doctor Zhivago, it hardly matters whether you burn the right village or the wrong one. The same deterrent point is made in either case.

In Iraq, the terrifying aspect of the violence is its randomness. You have a higher chance of being tortured to death with a drill if you are a secularist, a translator working with the coalition, an advocate of women's rights, or a Christian, but the atmosphere is one in which nobody—not even a preacher or practitioner of sectarianism—can feel safe. In Lebanon, the situation is also slightly volatile. Those targeted for murder have included a former prime minister backed by Saudi funds, the former chairman of the Communist Party, and most recently the leader of the Maronite Catholic right: a fairly broad spectrum of victims, if, essentially, a predictable one. But in Beirut two decades ago, the situation was more like it is in Baghdad today, with mayhem in almost every part of the city and splits within cracks within fissures of each militia, so that almost every block had its own warlord. So ghastly was this state of affairs that there were enough people to welcome Syrian troops at least grudgingly when they first arrived, on the basis that anything...

[lesser_satan]

bump

[Biscuit85]

this is a good read

[humint]

Those who blame the violence in Baghdad on the American presence must have a hard job persuading themselves that the mayhem in Beirut and Afghanistan—and the mayhem that is being planned and is still to come—is attributable to the same cause. But the instigators are the same in all cases: the parties of god and their foreign masters. If we cannot even stand up for Lebanon in this crisis, even rhetorically, then we are close to admitting that these parties have won.

I too am concerned about our capacity to "stand up". I've heard and read stories about Iraqis behaving chaotically and dangerously after the fall of Saddam Hussein. I'm not referring to insurgent attacks but general misdemeanors - driving the wrong way down one way streets - sexually harassing women - littering - When asked why they were doing what they were doing, they replied, "this is democracy, I can do whatever I want". That behavior sounds as if Iraqis were not ready for democracy and the system is too unstable for them. Among other things, democracy is managed chaos so their misunderstanding of democratic behavior and governance does not suggest stability through democracy in the Middle East is not possible. What it really means is that it will be a long and hard road to establish.

I then realized something about Westerners. How different is the average Westerner's understanding of democracy? If our law abiding compatriots in the West are only civil in society because they don't know any other way to behave then there is no moral justification to "stand up" for anything. If standing up for something like democracy in Lebanon is not done in Western Democracies then one might ask if representative government has any room at all for genuine leadership, even in times of crisis. If the trail of blood and bread crumbs previous generations of Westerners made for us is so faded and can't be recovered then all that is left are habits. So what's the danger if our habits are healthy? Simply exercising healthy democratic habits while the philosophy that created them is disparaged or even ignored will engender new habits. Apparently, one new habit is the West's inability to "stand up" for our allies when doing so is inconvenient.

Part of the logic that delivered the West to where it is today is the realization that the forces of chaos never actually win but only guarantees that we all lose. Fortunately, it is never too late to "stand up". Good post.