Today, many Lebanese are recalling the first day of civil war, where they were and what they were doing. Some were caught off guard by it, while others were expecting it and had made the necessary preparations. Many recall the moment they saw armed men near their homes for the first time, heard gunshots or cannons roars, and the moment they raised in the living room the picture of a brother, a sister or a mother who was killed by a sniper shot or in a random shooting. But 37 years later, we find nothing to say about that war except expressions of sorrow, similar to those uttered by whoever lost a dear one in a car accident. A little more than 21 years after the end of the war, the memory of the Lebanese has not overcome the individual aspect of the suffering which refused to become part of a collective memory, on whose bases general positions and agreements over the meanings of the country, of identity and independence could be established. What the Lebanese were able to achieve however, could be summarized with the sustainment by the sectarian groups of their war tales and the distribution of these groups between victors and defeated, knowing that both categories are misleading. Indeed, the victorious camp, composed of Muslims, is forgetting that it would not have achieved supremacy during the war had it not been for the full engagement of the Syrian regime in it, thus tilting the chances in its favor during the years that followed the first rounds of war in 1975-1976. Moreover, it is forgetting that it paid a hefty price for a mutilated victory, represented by the forced imposition of an alliance with Damascus on it after the coerced ousting of the Palestine liberation Organization, and the undermining of any non-sectarian project. This camp is also forgetting that it entered civil war while unified under the banner of powers advocating democracy, social justice and the hastening of the liberation of Palestine, and exited it with sectarian scars that are still deepening until this day among the Muslims, and the prevalence of powers, the least that could be said about is that they introduced into Lebanese society what it could have done without, whether politically, religiously or financially, thus enhancing a despicable factional awareness. As to the defeated camp, which includes the Christians, it is now disregarding the massive responsibility it carries at the level of triggering of war, after it refused to reform the system which was rightfully dubbed “the system of sectarian privileges” or “the system of political Maronism.” Consequently, it chose to resort to weapons based on a rash perception of the balances of regional and international powers, while still insisting on promoting a fake image of itself - despite its cultural and economic retreat – using alliances and “understandings” with the powers of the fait accompli in the other camp to overcome the deception of history. In the meantime, the real battle is occurring outside of it. Obviously, the Lebanese do not wish to recognize these bitter facts, as they do not wish to recognize any others. They thus rather hide behind the tale which any smart third grade student would reject, about a war that swept Lebanon like tornadoes sweep peaceful towns whose only crime is that they were located along their course. The same applies to the talk in Lebanon about the fact that there are no winners or losers except for the formula of coexistence which came out victorious, knowing that the end of civil war constituted a textbook example for defeats and victories. The Lebanese know very well that any studying of their long wars will only lead to the extraction of the rot in a country governed by the deceased from behind their tombstones. Therefore, the Lebanese are abstaining from benefitting – even if at a minimum level – from the lessons of the war, in order to move toward a new stage of their (forced) coexistence, and are going on with their days whose repetition is enhancing the effects of the war through the fueling of hatred and the use of violence whenever the opportunity is available. It is the same war but with different means.
