Failed Assassination Attempts are Bad Rallying Cries

July 6, 2012 · Mustapha Hamoui

Pheww..

Yesterday, there was an attempt at M.P. Boutros Harb’s life. A few months ago, there was one on LF leader Samir Geagea. M.P. Saad Hariri, whose father was assassinated, is said to be out of the country because he’s the subject of a credible assassination threat.

Imagine for a second if any of these men, all March 14 heavy-hitters, actually got killed. Make no mistake about it, things would be very different today. There would be loud demonstrations, massive tire burning, road blocking and serious commotion. People would be genuinely angry and if their energy were to be focused they might be able to make a real impact. But if the assassination is thwarted, like what has happened so far, none of the above will take place. People will breath a collective sigh of relief, make a few noises and perhaps start a clumsy rumor to deter future attempts.

In theory, it doesn’t matter if assassination attempts are successful or not. What matters is that there’s a bad guy out there who wants to kill important people. That killer is on the loose and might be successful next time. People should care about failed attempts as much as they care about successful ones.

In practice, however, things are different.

Real death has a way of shocking us on a visceral level. Respect for death, even for that of an enemy, is universal. Can you imagine if Samir Geagea really did get killed, that people would make all these snarky comments about the assassination on Facebook?

An almost-death on the other hand is a pure intellectual exercise. If a heavy object fell from the 10th floor and landed right next to you, it will take some mental effort to imagine that if you were standing only a few centimeters to the right, you would have died. You tell that story to your parents and they’ll laugh it off, a reaction far from what they’d have if you actually died.

In case you’re wondering where I’m getting at with all this rambling, here you go: The government will not resign because Butrous Harb almost got killed.