Marginal Revolution: The Tragedy of Beirut

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The Tragedy of Beirut

Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief for NBC news, writes about how much can change in a matter of weeks. Beirut

A few weeks ago, I was here and working on just that story — it was even called “Beirut is back.”

It was supposed to be about how the economy has revived, the restaurants are full, the nightclubs are hopping, and the beaches are full of women in bikinis.

Today I’m standing here wearing a flak jacket, watching the airport burning, and there are more strikes expected.

Thanks to Amanda Agan for the pointer.

Posted by Alex Tabarrok on July 14, 2006 at 03:44 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink

Comments

I was going to vacation there...

Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Jul 14, 2006 4:05:35 PM

The old rule of real-estate is to buy the worst house in a good neighborhood, not the best house in a bad neighborhood. You can fix the house, but not the neighborhood...

Sadly for Lebanon, Hizballah needs to be destroyed before it will really be "back". Getting rid of Kid Assad would help too. Only then will the neighborhood be worth buying into...

Posted by: Foobarista at Jul 14, 2006 5:01:08 PM

"Sadly for Lebanon, Hizballah needs to be destroyed before it will really be "back". Getting rid of Kid Assad would help too. Only then will the neighborhood be worth buying into..."

Just the way Baghdad is "back" now that Saddam and the Baathists are gone!

Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 14, 2006 9:48:31 PM

Lebanon is a country that is especially entrepreneurial and not as shackled by the dilemmas of religious and ethnic identification as is much of the Middle East.

Yet, this small place is the marketplace for war among the region’s powers.

As long as fundamentally flawed ideas are protected as defended as sacred truths, the misery will continue……

Posted by: Chairman Mao at Jul 14, 2006 11:53:10 PM

"Lebanon is a country that is especially entrepreneurial and not as shackled by the dilemmas of religious and ethnic identification as is much of the Middle East."

Good grief.

Yes, the Lebanese are highly entrepreneurial, but anybody who knows anything about their history knows that "the dilemmas of religious and ethnic identification" are what make up the sorry history of Lebanon.

Libertarians need to understand that entrepreneurialism and ethnic murderousness are by no means mutually exclusive, as Lebanon has shown over and over.

Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 15, 2006 2:34:43 AM

Bad things happen quickly; good things happen slowly.

Posted by: Russell Nelson at Jul 15, 2006 2:42:15 AM

Steve Sailer,

The Lebanese are very much involved in religious and cultural struggles (Shi’ite, Sunni, Maronite, pro-Arab, pro-West/French, pro-peace, pro-war). We do not intend to imply that all the spiritual/intellectual dilemmas are purely external.

The Lebanese culture, however, has a tendency to overcome such pains; enough to create a national character (inclusive of members from all the aforementioned) that looks beyond or beneath such matters and unites in its love for living richly and for the day and embracing its market-oriented nature.

To see evidence of this, compare the behavior of Lebanese expatriates in foreign countries to that of other nationalities.

Posted by: Chairman Mao at Jul 15, 2006 3:17:21 AM

I think what everyone seems to be missing in this case is the HUGE economic stimilus that will occur after everyone begins spending their money fixing the place up. Perhaps the people of Beirut should think about sending Isreal a little thank you card for breaking their windows, non?

Posted by: Nacim Bouchtia at Jul 15, 2006 8:36:04 AM

Nacim Bouchtia, I hope you are joking, but if not, please look up the broken window fallacy and read Frederic Bastiat's That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen.

Posted by: Jones at Jul 15, 2006 12:41:07 PM

Israel and the bush administration want the US to invade Iran. This disproportionate response by Israel is designed to provoke reactions from the other Arab nations. Failing that, counterfeit atrocities will be cooked up implicating Syria and Iran. All so that the US can invade Iran, because we sure aren't going to get a UN resolution authorizing it with Russia and China vetoing any such.

Posted by: Peter at Jul 15, 2006 11:29:52 PM

One can only hope that Israel takes out Syria and Iran. Now is the perfect
opportunity to do so.

With Iran we have as president over there the new Hitler. He's admitted
as much publicly, and yet some won't take him seriously.

This is 1936 and the Rhineland all over again, where one nation can take
out a crazy dictator and prevent a horrendous war from happening in the
near future.

Isn't it amazing how a non-state entity, Hezbollah, actually has missiles
and rockets, and that they are actually quite effective? In fact, I'd say
that Hezbollah rockets have been more effective than Saddam Hussein's Scuds
in 1990 during the Gulf War. The technology of weaponry is the same as
all technology; it trickles down. That which is sophisticated today and in
the hands of an elite few eventually end up in the hands of the masses.

If Iran is not stopped now, then the next time a conflict occurs, and it will,
the Iranians will see to that, those missiles from Hezbollah will have
nukes on their tips.

WWIII will indeed break out, but only because the good fail to take strong action to stop the evil. And in this conflict, there is no mistake that Iran and Syria play the role of the evil.

Posted by: thought at Jul 16, 2006 1:31:08 AM

childish thought

Posted by: youthinkthatyou'rethinking? at Jul 16, 2006 2:43:37 AM

I thing the 'thank you card for breaking their windows' was supposed to be the tipoff that Nacim Bouchtia:

A. Was joking.

B. Knows Bastiat well.

Posted by: David Tomlin at Jul 16, 2006 9:16:48 AM

"One can only hope that Israel takes out Syria and Iran."

"Take out"? Did you mean that in the sense that one "takes out" garbage -- a momentary act that results in not having to think about the object anymore?

Posted by: Jeff Brown at Jul 16, 2006 10:38:51 AM

Hasn't Beirut been oscillating between economic liveliness and utter destruction for, oh, five thousand years or so now? Why would one expect this century to be any different? Baghdad and Iraq in general, though, are definitely looking up. Unfortunately for those hoping for Bush's comeuppance, large sections of the country keep being turned over to local control, for good or ill. The unpleasantness in Gaza and Lebanon is in large measure stimulated by desperation and panic on the part of Iran and Syria at the impending success of the new, more secular, more US-friendly Iraq. Both Iran and Syria are faced with modern, hostile armies on their East and West borders, thanks to GWB. Without the liberation of Iraq, Saddam would be cooperating in the assault on Israel and the situation would be far more likely to go nuclear.

Posted by: Robert Speirs at Jul 16, 2006 10:45:10 AM

Robert is absolutely correct: if we had not rightfully removed Saddam Hussein, this situation in the Middle East would only be far worse. If Saddam were still in power, he would be making this situation worse...not only that, but the whole world would still suspect him of having WMDs, and behave as such. Saddam was a huge obstacle in dealing with Iran and North Korea; it's good that the obstacle was removed.

Plus, I think our hand is far strong with over 100,000 of our troops in that region, in Iraq. Iran surely knows this.

To answer Jeff's question, by "Israel taking out Syria and Iran" I mean total destruction or removal of the current leadership in those countries. The leadership in those countries is clearly the impetus behind terrorism in the Middle East. There can be no compromise with these people: they have told us that in very clear words. Just like we "took out" Hitler and Japan in WWII, so must the leadership of Syria and especially Iran be utterly and totally defeated, either with their destruction or unconditional surrender. To do anything less is akin to treating a cancer but allowing some of the tumors to remain, only to come back and threaten the life another day.

If left unchecked, Iran will surely get nuclear capabilities in the near future. The pres of Iran has already told us that he is dedicated to the absolute destruction of Israel, and the spread of an Islamic dictatorship. What could be more clear?

Just like Hitler was very clear about his motives in 1930, so is this new Hitler in Iran. The only question is whether the world will have the nerve this time to stop this problem before it becomes the worst case scenario.

Posted by: thought at Jul 16, 2006 1:32:28 PM

Mr. thought:

Yes, it would be better if we could transform countries whose leaders want to destroy Israel into ones whose leaders behave otherwise, ceteris paribus. But trying to do that by bombing Iran's White House runs the horrible risk of further agitating Muslim hostility to Western culture.

The beliefs and actions of a country's leaders are in large part a reflection of popular sentiment. If antisemitic rhetoric got Iran's current president (supreme leader? whatever) appointed, it's not clear to me that blowing him one up will cause someone better to replace him.

Also, from what I understand, he's a buffoon, with no control of the military in particular. That does not excuse what he says, but it weakens the case for blowing him up. The benefits of such actions are fuzzy at best, while the costs are clearly very great.

Or so it seems to me.

Posted by: Jeff Brown at Jul 16, 2006 5:26:02 PM

Washington, Hamilton, and Madison foresaw the present day clearly in Washington's Farewell Address:

"Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite [foreign country] are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests."

Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jul 16, 2006 8:11:10 PM

Let's see. Lebanon has ethnic diversity, differential birthrates, and immigration (thank you Steve Sailer). As a consequence, it has suffered tragic wars and is now being shredded because one faction insists on the right to wage war irrespective of the opinions of the national government.

The sad reality is the diversity is weakness at best and frequently a prelude to disaster. The idea that America should import diversity is absurd. We have more than enough already. The Founding Fathers understood this. Our national motto "E Pluribus Unum" was an explicitly rejection of diversity. Sadly, this sound idea has been so greatly diminished that a candidate for President claimed it meant "out of one, many".

Posted by: Peter Schaeffer at Jul 17, 2006 2:20:35 PM

if we had not rightfully removed Saddam Hussein, this situation in the Middle East would only be far worse.

Worse for who? Us in America? We didn't need to be involved in the first place. I also question the idea that having troops on the ground in Iraq somehow puts us in a better position to strike Iran - the soldiers in Iraq seem kind of busy at the moment, and I expect Iran has enough agents on the ground that we're not going to parlay this proximity into some kind of surprise attack. Airstrikes we could have done even without bases in Iraq.

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