Salon - August 4

How Lebanon rescued me
Today, who threatens Lebanon's freedom -- Israel, Iran, Syria, Hezbollah or some toxic blend -- is debated endlessly. But who has betrayed Lebanon's freedom and its civilians is clearly the United States, which has failed to understand that what was born of the birth pangs of the 15-year Lebanese civil war, the 18-year Israeli occupation of its south, the 14-year presence of Syria, and the ongoing domestic reconciliation process since Hariri's death, was a fragile yet functional coexistence that could have proved to be the viable model in the Middle East that Iraq will never be.