Iedereen is schuldig volgens Daily Star

Naar aanleiding van de opgeblazen bussen van dinsdag, wijdde de Daily Star daar gisteren haar redactioneel commentaar aan, zie beneden. Een erg slap verhaal: iedereen is schuldig.

Nee, niet iedereen is schuldig en zeker niet in gelijke mate, zoals het artikel suggereert. De feiten op een rij:

- Libanon organiseert democratische verkiezingen die werden geregiseerd door Syrië
- Desondanks winnen de anti-Syrische politici overtuigend met meer dan 2/3 van de stemmen
- De pro-Syrische Hezbollah lokt een oorlog met Israël uit waarbij ruim 1200 doden vallen en voor miljarden aan schade wordt aangericht
- De pro-Syrische partijen kunnen niet tegen hun verkiezingsnederlaag en stappen uit het parlement en regering.
- Libanon raakt verlamd en komt in nog meer economische malaise terecht

Tja, lijkt me duidelijk wie hier schuldig is. Maar niet voor de Daily Star. In een oh-zo-vertrouwd postmodern nihilisme is iedereen even schuldig. Een "scherpe analyse", kortom:

One day before the second anniversary of the massive blast that killed one of the most important personages in Lebanon's history, Tuesday's bus bombings near the town of Bikfaya previewed the inevitable result of unsolved murders and uninspired politics since the slaying of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. As if attacks on journalists and politicians were not sufficiently sickening, some ignoble party decided to target the Lebanese people themselves. The perpetrators of this cowardly act deserve universal scorn, but it should be noted also that their intent did not materialize of its own accord, out of thin air. Rather, the malicious crime arose from the conditions created by squabbling political leaders among whom the only discernible common denominator is an undiluted contempt for their compatriots.

Given the utter lack of respect that the high and mighty of both the government and the opposition have shown for the general public by failing to reach a compromise, it was perfectly predictable that eventually, someone would carry out a craven atrocity against the innocent and the humble. The next stage that so many Lebanese fear, though, is entirely avoidable: We do not have to see tit-for-tat massacres that spiral into civil war if the political class realizes at last that its pride is not justified, that its status is not earned, and that its priorities are indefensible.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

The people who flooded into the streets of Beirut after the assassination of Hariri - all of them - have been betrayed. Some have switched camps, some have withdrawn from the political process, and some have given up on the country altogether. And those who remain devoted to one side or the other are missing the point of those heady days in February and March of 2005: No one was sure what vision of Lebanon would prevail, but everyone was certain that the future would be better than the past. Emphatically, that has not been the case thus far - and the politicians are to blame for having subjugated the interests of an entire country to their personal foibles, their determined inactivity, their wishful thinking, their rash actions, and, most of all, their wholly undeserved sense of entitlement.

Plenty of flowery condolences were uttered by powerful political figures after Tuesday's carnage. There was no evidence, though, that an appropriate sense of urgency had been instilled in them, and none that they understand who is to blame for all that has gone wrong - and all that may be about to.