What next after Tripoli's twin blasts

We have seen it all before in Iraq, the steady wearing down of the people’s resilience and determination with an unrelenting and monotonous campaign of bombings that target large civilian conurbations, market places and places of worship. Bomb blasts that harvest hundreds of burned and dismembered corpses and hundreds more wounded and this includes both wounds that can be seen and others that cannot be seen.

Lebanon it turns out is not special after all, not particularly immune to ‘Somalization’ or ‘Iraqization’ as some have and continue to suggest, we are just another third world Arab mess torn apart by its own contradictions, teetering on the brink of failed Statehood. Of course the standard refrain from locals is that regional and global powers have conspired against Lebanon because somehow our small country is really that important in the large scheme of things.

For the Western media a bomb blast in Iraq is no longer something new or interesting. The honeymoon, one could say is over, over there. But for Lebanon our honeymoon with the Western media, this insatiable beast that feeds on people’s misery, is just begun. The Tripoli blasts got top billing on BBC and CNN and on the regional satellite channels too. The Ruwais bombing before that was a feast for the Western media, not only was it a poignant story happening in a country that prides itself on plastic bodies and vodka-soaked night spots, it was a chance for that media to get a few punches in at the West’s public enemy number one, Iran and by extension Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s entry into a new and tragic phase of its national life, one defined by weekly or even daily bombings as a journalist friend of mine suggested on Facebook, is a special media event apparently.

This is not an easy subject for me to write about or talk about; unfortunately not all my compatriots feel this way and certainly not the local media which has pounced on this tragedy as a perfect opportunity to sell more advertising. Every local station has been talking nonstop since the bombs went off in Tripoli, some news reporters actually forget to pause for breath when they are live on air as they struggle to cram in as many words as possible in their news segments; supposedly they are paid per number of words uttered!

For my humble self and I am sure many others in Lebanon, the past 48 hours have been defined by nonstop mind numbing verbal diarrhea, a steady diet of denouncements and pronouncements from officials and politicians, but above all by a sense of overwhelming shock and disbelief. Of course there are others that pretend to try to go on about their daily lives as if nothing has happened, or maybe they don’t want to believe anything has happened, because we really have no plan B for when the unthinkable actually does happen.

All I know is that we are not prepared for this kind of wave upon devastating wave of bombings but we better get prepared and fast.

There are those who would fling accusations about as to which side is behind the bombings, whether the one in Ruwais or the other two in Tripoli, but one theory seems to me both plausible and logical and simple enough to understand: that all three were the work of one group. Such a group would benefit from a sectarian conflict erupting in Lebanon between Sunnis and Shia.

There are those who suggest the Syrian regime is behind the blasts as they benefit in some way by relieving pressure on their internal front. Others suggest global jihad and Al Qaeda are to blame, also equally plausible as a multinational force of jihadists lies just across the border in Syria. But in Lebanon, the minute you commit to one point of view or the other you are immediately labeled and pigeon-holed as belonging to or supporting one group against another.

Even in our most tragic and desperate hours we debate the merits of which theory is more plausible or credible based on political affiliation. Suddenly we forget the tragedy and remember our political mission to use this tragedy as a political weapon against our political opponents.

The culprits must be found, it is crucial that arrests are made rapidly if only to thwart other potential bombings. A greater security presence needs to be maintained on the streets, squares and major commercial and market areas across the country as well as at houses of worship of all faiths and denominations. There has to be more thorough security procedures to screen vehicles, with routine stop and searches by the army and security services. Above all we need a new government, one that has a clear mandate from all parties, and one that has the power to govern effectively.

I wish I could be more optimistic about the future, but I’m not, maybe it’s because I know the Lebanese too well, and maybe it’s because of the Iraq experience, all I know is that I have never been as afraid for my country’s future and its survival as I am today.