# Beirut burns again.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 8, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577 "2008-05-08T17:14:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/1 "2008-05-08T17:14:37Z")
> **[Gun battles break out in Beirut - CNN.com](http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/08/lebanon.hezbollah/index.html)**
>
> Gun fire broke out in downtown Beirut on Thursday after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said recent government actions amount to "a declaration of open war."
Shiite and Sunni are at each other’s throats in Lebanon, and once again, Beirut, which has rebuilt so much since it was virtually destroyed in the 1980’s, has open gun battles and RPG fire going on in the streets.
Goddamn this world.
---
### Author:  [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/2 "2008-05-08T17:39:16Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre]
Goddamn this world.
[/QUOTE]
It’s not the world, it’s the people.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/3 "2008-05-08T17:40:10Z")
This is all Bush’s fault.
---
### Author:  [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/4 "2008-05-08T17:45:21Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya]
This is all Bush’s fault.
[/QUOTE]
Amen.
---
### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/5 "2008-05-08T17:48:50Z")
Well the guys firing the guns deserve some of the blame.
---
### Author:  [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/6 "2008-05-08T18:04:27Z")
A bit of background…
Part of the current conflict is actually due to Hezbollah’s [use of the phone system](http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1738255,00.html) in Lebanon. While this may seem like a silly objection, it’s important to note that, among other things, Hezbollah has threatened to murder anybody who interferes with their private network, as well as quite possibly casing the Beiruit airport (not that Hezbollah would ever do anything non-progressive with such knowledge, natch).
Keep in mind, also, that an [official Lebanese report](http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/980491.html) has just recently been released, alleging that with Iran’s help, Hezbollah has set up their network to spy on domestic calls. This, of course, would be in an international bid by Iran to solidify their C&C/intel abilities via various terrorist organizations.
Just for some background.
---
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/7 "2008-05-08T18:09:15Z")
Sunni . . . Shi’a . . . Druze . . .
Ancient Irish joke: “If only we were heathen so we could all live together like good Christians!”
---
### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/8 "2008-05-08T18:19:18Z")
It’s really Hezbollah which is the problem; it’s only tangentially related to religion.
Which reminds me: why haven’t we bitchered Hexbollah yet? Seems like a good idea to me.
---
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/9 "2008-05-08T18:22:59Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit]
Which reminds me: why haven’t we bitchered Hexbollah yet? Seems like a good idea to me.
[/QUOTE]
😕 Even allowing for the typos, you can’t actually mean what I think you do there.
---
### Author:  [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/10 "2008-05-08T18:25:06Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
😕 Even allowing for the typos, you can’t actually mean what I think you do there.
[/QUOTE]
I think he actually meant bitch about?
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/11 "2008-05-08T18:31:15Z")
I read that as “bewitched Hexbollah.” Made perfect sense to me. In a way.
---
### Author:  [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/12 "2008-05-08T18:54:24Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit]
Which reminds me: why haven’t we bitchered Hexbollah yet? Seems like a good idea to me.
[/QUOTE]
I seem to recall it having been tried a couple of times and not working out too well.
Hezbollah is a bunch of shitheels. I despise them. They claim to be Lebanese Nationalists, but they are just Syria and Iran’s bitches, who do the bidding of their foreign masters. They don’t care about Lebanon at all; they will drag that country down to hell.
signed,
**S&I** , \*former \* (thanks to Hezbollah) Beirut resident
---
### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/13 "2008-05-08T19:15:53Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya]
I read that as “bewitched Hexbollah.” Made perfect sense to me. In a way.
[/QUOTE]
I think the word is ‘butchered’.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/14 "2008-05-08T19:33:19Z")
But we haven’t yet butchered Hezbollah, have we?
I remember learning about Lebanon at DLI in the Army. Until then it had never dawned on me how … is “fractured” the right word? … a country’s government could be. It struck me as odd that political parties should have their own armies. I get scared thinking how things would be if the Republicans and Democrats each had their own major forces, and then at odds with them would be the Libertarians, Greens and Christian Freedom parties, each with a few companies of armor and a couple thousand light infantry. And then just pretend that, rather than simply having heated but usually civilised disagreements, these parties honestly hated each other. What a freakin’ mess. Needs a good strong despot to clean it up doesn’t it?
---
### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/15 "2008-05-08T19:54:22Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre]
> **[Gun battles break out in Beirut - CNN.com](https://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/08/lebanon.hezbollah/index.html)**
>
> Gun fire broke out in downtown Beirut on Thursday after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said recent government actions amount to "a declaration of open war."
[/QUOTE]
Well, fuck.
---
### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/16 "2008-05-08T20:08:48Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya]
It struck me as odd that political parties should have their own armies.
[/QUOTE]
In a revolutionary situation or a disordered state, political parties **typically** have their own armies. Check out the history of the Spanish Civil War. Or the Russian Revolution(s) of 1917. Or post-invasion Iraq.
---
### Author:  [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/17 "2008-05-08T20:13:37Z")
Of course, we can always ignore that it is and continues to be a chaotic state largely because Iran likes it that way and wants its little genocidal militia to be powerful.
But then again, betting on you even _knowing_ the history of Iran’s involvement in the region is probably asking a bit too much, eh glutton?
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/18 "2008-05-08T20:13:43Z")
[QUOTE=CNN Reporter]
“When you’re talking about this much gunfire, when you’re talking about [rocket-propelled grenades] fire, it’s absolutely ludicrous to think that the army will put themselves between these two factions,” he said.
[/QUOTE]
Fat load of help they are. That sunds like the US Army getting cold feet about calming down a firefight in DC. Sounds like what’s left of the LA national Guard could successfully invade and occupy Lebanon.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/19 "2008-05-08T20:15:12Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
In a revolutionary situation or a disordered state, political parties **typically** have their own armies.
[/QUOTE]
I realize that now that I’m an old man, but it surprised my younger naiver self back then.
---
### Author:  [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577/20 "2008-05-08T20:17:16Z")
Well, to be fair Inigo, you’re talking about urban warfare with at least one faction that’s been armed (up to and including APC’s and anti-tank weaponry) by Iran. And then having that force fight it out against an army that has been weakened, partially due to a large chunk of the country being seized by Iranian proxies. And that doesn’t even get into internal divisions where other political groups have supported Hezbollah for one reason or another.
The country already fought a civil war once, and Iran made it quite clear who they were backing and why. Absent Iran stopping their actions in Lebanon/Syria, it’ll most likely take an external force to deal with Hezbollah.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/beirut-burns-again/448577.md?page=2)