There are no facts, only interpretations.

I only discovered this that quote a few weeks ago, but it seemed almost as if I knew it for such a long time ago.

I have often witnessed in my society the bias of the war. I have often heard people brag about how we the Maronites have preserved the Christians presence in the Middle East. Very often I have embraced the concept that the war was imposed on us, that we had to fight this war. The idea is very simple, we were defending Lebanon. But wait a minute! Everyone was defending Lebanon. Each and every fucking asshole in this war was defending Lebanon. When the Syrian Army entered Lebanon (under the name of the Arab Army) they were defending Lebanon.

No we the Lebanese don’t really feel that it’s someone else’s fault that the Civil War Exploded. We realize we fucked up. And we do feel guilty about it. We don’t just blame the Syrians, or the Israelis, or the Americans. We do blame ourselves. It’s the politics that monopolizes the concept of the unique enemy.

Before 2005 it was Israel. Israel held the Lebanese hostages, Israel made the Kanna massacre, Israel tried to occupy Lebanon, and Israel’s the source of all evils. After 2005 it was Syria. But that’s all politics. Because politicians have to simplify complicated words. They have to make it all sound so easy, so that the solution and the reaction would be very simple and easy.

Think about a politician that comes and tells you:
“Well my friend, let me tell you something. This whole war was no one’s fault, it was the ugly fatality of the sectarian spirit that I, and my father before me (and his father before him…), have fed you in order to preserve my family’s grip over your neck and over your money. And you know what? You can’t really do anything about it, because if I didn’t hypnotize you it would have been someone else… We politicians in the third world countries are all the same”

If anyone said that, would you still support him in his wars, for his interests? No
And that’s why they won’t say it. They’ll just create an enemy.

We the Lebanese are often criticized for our choices, for our demonstrations, for our politics. I know that, we all know that. We the Lebanese don’t really think about what Arabs think about us. Because we don’t want a political cast similar to yours and we secretly despise Arabs. Even the Muslims in Lebanon don’t think very highly of Arabs. Yet another ridiculous stereotype, we think we are better.

Do Lebanese people hate the Syrian People? Yes, most of us do. Because it’s all the years of repression that are appearing to the surface. I personally do not support this hatred. I have met Syrians to whom I became a friend. They are just people, not monsters and not apes. But I saw many things happen in my countries and I do understand how tempting hatred can be.

People are often shocked with the irrationality of the human mind. Of how defective it seems. But in fact the human mind is merely the result of the nature. Stab a man once and he will wait the right chance when he becomes strong and he will stab you back. He might take no benefit from that, but he will do it nonetheless. The Lebanese people felt wounded and they are reacting, it is neither useful nor fair. But a broken bone takes time to heal.