Tomorrow will mark the 37th anniversary of the civil war in Lebanon. How many Lebanese believe that their country has regained its civil peace and turned the page on collective suicides? During that war, the violations and horrors committed by the militias came down in history as being black days. 37 years later, we are still hearing about a black Monday in Tunisia and a black Saturday in Libya. As to the beginning of the suicides in Lebanon, it allowed the Israeli spring, as it spared the Hebrew state from the mischief of a neighbor which rarely exercised this mischief to its own interest. The spark of the Lebanese civil war on April 13 was not caused by an uprising against a dictator and was not a revolution for bread and freedom, as it is the case in the countries of the Arab spring. Rather, it was the nightmare inherent in manipulating civil peace according to interests beyond the borders, which has always been the ailment of the Lebanese, or rather their politicians who promise the Lebanese a ‘paradise in the Orient' if they continue to obey them…and surrender their fates to them. 37 years after a war in which the most horrendous acts were committed and during which the dignity of the Lebanese from all sects was abused to please the handler, i.e. the “owner” and “protector” of the sect, they can ask the lords of the deferred peace the following: Is there anything preventing the eruption of other wars on the domestic arena, as long as foreign alliances continue to reproduce the country/battleground formula? In the meantime, the exchange of lies is mounting via clichéd slogans targeting the honors and the intentions, whenever one of the “heroes” of the Lebanese myth of democracy decides to fuel tensions and hatred to advance his popularity. As to the question related to whether or not the Arabs – during their spring - have learned from the tragedies of the Lebanese suicides, it might be closer to a wish, considering that the rebelling parties here and there are wearing the cloaks of the sects or the tribes and rendering all the others their favorite enemies. Lebanon was the first to test life under the mercy of the militias which divided the land, the people and the state amongst each other. Today, Libya's militias which toppled the dictator Gaddafi and raised the flags of the revolution have become the first threat facing the institutions and the state in the post-revolution phase. In Lebanon, what sparked war was a “revolution” against the Palestinian revolution, while in the countries of the Arab spring, the revolutionaries do not know the meaning of retirement following the mandate given to the state. Is this not the quality of Lebanon's warlords? Lebanon was the first among the Arab countries to test modern civil war, and Iraq was the first in summoning foreign invasion to topple the dictator. How many Iraqis are wondering today about the promises of Saddam's opponents to freedom and the paradise of security, integrity and justice? How many of them, and us, truly showed remorse and apologized?! What about the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? Does it have any evidence to disprove the accusations made against them of turning the spring of the revolution into a spring for the group? Of attempting to monopolize decision making – after they fought such monopoly for decades – under the pretext of their ownership of the popular choice? Is this also not the case of Ennahda in Tunisia whose headquarters are being burned despite its overwhelming victory with the will of the people? As to the spring in Syria, its cost in a year amounted to around 10,000 dead. The pan-Arab solution was rejected and the beginning of internationalization did not end the funerary processions. True, Syria is not Tunisia, Egypt or Libya, and not even Lebanon – the weak underbelly of Syria – but what unifies the Arabs in all of their spring is a loud and deafening siren which no is hearing, because the battle is fateful. These are the sirens warning against endless civil wars, whose scenes – that might differ at the level of their locations and the protagonists – are only reproducing the Lebanese model. Is it impossible for the opponent of the Tunisian Ennahda to become a doctrine or a generation of anger which is only promised empty hope by the revolutionary authority? It is not closer to sterility to see the Egyptian MB members running after victory instead of listening to the generation of the revolution? What the MB is doing in regard to the candidacy of Omar Suleiman for the presidency is a mere cloning of the eradication of the Baathists in Iraq and the perception of millions of Iraqis as being time bombs. In such a case, citizenship becomes the object of permanent testing, under the pretext of protecting the country against the return of dictatorship. The MB chose the path of fast victory, recanting their promises to abstain from running to the presidency and preferring to squeeze the small parties in the corner. In Libya, the militias chose to corner the state in the street, while tribalism is heralding the division of the revolution. In Tunisia, the post-revolution authority is being accused of terrorism, in Yemen an airport was hijacked and in Lebanon, they are anticipating the winds from across the border. 37 years after April 13, the status of the Arab spring is reviving the fears over the project of wars emerging from the womb of the revolution.
