Syria today has weapons and an intelligence infrastructure, the Lebanese have will; Syria has high capabilities and low morale; the Lebanese have low capabilities and high morale. Again and again, the record of history shows, victory goes not to the side with greater firepower, but to the side with greater determination.
According to a World Health Organization study, Lebanese teenagers are today the world's least happy, though the Beirut government leads us to believe that Lebanon is on the path of regaining its golden years, pre-1975.
Lebanon is today one of the first countries in history to systematically educate its youth not to identify with their country or their people. Imagine, for comparison, that the dispossession of the Indians was the main subject taught to American students in American history classes. Having cut ourselves off from the past, we seem increasingly incapable of thinking about the future. We live only in the immediate present. Long-range planning - in such fields as the environment, the economy, water resources and land usage, for example - is beyond us. In negotiating with the Syrians, we increasingly resemble a man fleeing from a lion, who keeps dropping hamburger meat in the lion's path to delay it. We forget, however, that there is only so much meat.
Having lost our love of the Land, we cannot conceive that another people has not. Having lost our sense of ourselves as a people, we cannot comprehend that another people has not. Desiring only to be left alone to enjoy our new toys in peace, we convince ourselves that the Syrians seek the same, and that if we only keep the atmospherics favorable with enough presents, all will work out. We refuse to confront the existence of enemies who still think in terms of victory, not reconciliation. Hilal Khashan's poll of Arab students at Beirut University, drawn from a cross-section of our neighbors, reveals that 69% of our Arab "brothers and sisters" do not want peace in the region, 79% reject business contacts with the "imperialist Zionists" even after a total peace and 87% support attacks by Islamic groups.
In our moment of truth, Lebanon desperately needs a leader who recognizes the crucial role of the spirit in human affairs. We need a leader who can restore a sense of pride in our country, our people; a leader who can communicate a vision of the future that calls upon the abundant idealism of the Lebanese people still waiting to be tapped. Our challenge is one of the spirit, not of tactics. We cannot afford a technocrat whose perpetual smug, Cheshire-cat smile fairly screams, "I'm so smart." We need a leader who can stir our souls, not a President who huddles with a few cronies and insists that we trust him. We must believe again that our leaders are animated by some vision beyond their own retention of power. Recent evidence is not encouraging. Unfortunately, we also need a leader capable of preparing us for war. Failure to do so will only make war more likely by encouraging our enemies to believe that victory will be theirs - if not today, then tomorrow.
In short, we need a "Lebanese Churchill". Based on the evidence so far, we have only a watchmaker.
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Ziad K. Abdelnour is President of the US Committee for a Free Lebanon, Inc. The Committee can be reached at www.FreeLebanon.org.
According to a World Health Organization study, Lebanese teenagers are today the world's least happy, though the Beirut government leads us to believe that Lebanon is on the path of regaining its golden years, pre-1975.
Lebanon is today one of the first countries in history to systematically educate its youth not to identify with their country or their people. Imagine, for comparison, that the dispossession of the Indians was the main subject taught to American students in American history classes. Having cut ourselves off from the past, we seem increasingly incapable of thinking about the future. We live only in the immediate present. Long-range planning - in such fields as the environment, the economy, water resources and land usage, for example - is beyond us. In negotiating with the Syrians, we increasingly resemble a man fleeing from a lion, who keeps dropping hamburger meat in the lion's path to delay it. We forget, however, that there is only so much meat.
Having lost our love of the Land, we cannot conceive that another people has not. Having lost our sense of ourselves as a people, we cannot comprehend that another people has not. Desiring only to be left alone to enjoy our new toys in peace, we convince ourselves that the Syrians seek the same, and that if we only keep the atmospherics favorable with enough presents, all will work out. We refuse to confront the existence of enemies who still think in terms of victory, not reconciliation. Hilal Khashan's poll of Arab students at Beirut University, drawn from a cross-section of our neighbors, reveals that 69% of our Arab "brothers and sisters" do not want peace in the region, 79% reject business contacts with the "imperialist Zionists" even after a total peace and 87% support attacks by Islamic groups.
In our moment of truth, Lebanon desperately needs a leader who recognizes the crucial role of the spirit in human affairs. We need a leader who can restore a sense of pride in our country, our people; a leader who can communicate a vision of the future that calls upon the abundant idealism of the Lebanese people still waiting to be tapped. Our challenge is one of the spirit, not of tactics. We cannot afford a technocrat whose perpetual smug, Cheshire-cat smile fairly screams, "I'm so smart." We need a leader who can stir our souls, not a President who huddles with a few cronies and insists that we trust him. We must believe again that our leaders are animated by some vision beyond their own retention of power. Recent evidence is not encouraging. Unfortunately, we also need a leader capable of preparing us for war. Failure to do so will only make war more likely by encouraging our enemies to believe that victory will be theirs - if not today, then tomorrow.
In short, we need a "Lebanese Churchill". Based on the evidence so far, we have only a watchmaker.
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Ziad K. Abdelnour is President of the US Committee for a Free Lebanon, Inc. The Committee can be reached at www.FreeLebanon.org.