Beirut Spring

Blogging Lebanon
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Politics move quickly and opinions evolve. There's a good chance I no longer hold some of the opinions expressed in the post below
—Mustapha

Lebanon As “Berlin Wall”

January 13, 2011 · Mustapha Hamoui

Richard Spencer:

Lebanon is becoming the Berlin Wall of the new Cold War: the frightening, potentially nuclear proxy struggle between allies of the West and Iran […] Like Berlin after the Second World War, Lebanon is a fractured place, with the major world powers — in this case, the US, Saudi Arabia and Iran/Syria — having their own local front men

Except Lebanon has always been like that. I have no problems with the cold war metaphor (there is indeed one between the US and Iran), but to categorize Lebanon as a Berlin war is to overlook the significant differences and to imply that Iran’s allies are longing to be saved from Iran’s death grip.