The Syrianization of Lebanon

[Valin]

Dispatches:

Michael J. Totten

5/27/13

 

In the past Ive used the term Lebanonization to describe whats happening in Syria, referring, of course, to the internationalized sectarian bloodfest of the Lebanese civil war. The term Lebanonization, though, is becoming outdated. Lebanons civil war killed more than 100,000 people, but it ended in 1990. Syrianization works better now, not only because its more current, but because it describes a phenomenon thats spilling beyond the borders of Syria.

 

Two years ago, Syria became Lebanonized. Today, Lebanon is becoming Syrianized.

 

This isnt a word game. Armed clashes have been breaking out in Lebanon for the last two years, and theyre all directly related to, and indirectly caused by, the Syrian civil war raging next door. Sunni and Alawite militias have been battling it out in the northern city Tripoli, mirroring the war between Sunni militias and the Alawite-dominated government and army in Syria. And the fighting heated up drastically in late May.

 

In the last week alone, more than 1200 mortar rounds and rockets exploded in Lebanons second-largest city, killing dozens. Its rather extraordinary that so few could be killed in a densely populated urban environment by such a large number of explosions, but the fighting is concentrated in a relatively small area where Sunnis and Alawites live in adjacent neighborhoods, neighborhoods which civilians can and will quickly flee when explosives start falling out of the sky.

 

(Snip)