Lebanon, failed state

West Can’t Wash Its Hands of Lebanon’s Meltdown Now, Given That It Supported the Corrupt System for Decades

The crisis which is emerging now and which is being keenly watched in the region is essentially economic which stems from a political one as its root cause. But how Lebanon became in debt to the tune of almost 90bn dollars, with no real easy way out of its malaise, is more the point: a system which was built as a temporary solution to win peace at the end of a civil war, simply went on too long and allowed warlords to run the country like they actually owned the state apparatus and the economy itself. In the earlier days when there was something resembling an economy – pre 2011 when the Syria war kicked off – there was always something in the pot to be taken. But eventually what we witnessed was that same apparatus, which we could call an alternative state, being used to exploit failure; Lebanon’s corrupt and greedy leaders adapted the model so that it could be used to embezzle international aid money, destroy the country’s environment and build a truly third world economy so as to look to international aid as a solution to their cash needs. It got so bad, that the ‘gang’ squabbled over who got to deal with the country’s garbage and found agreement in letting it pile up and become a crisis, simply to exploit the system even further and to lobby for 300m dollar incinerators – which of course come with massive kickbacks.

Warlords and tribes do not make a government as Syria and Iraq are discovering.   I wish there was a fast track to evolution, but likely not.