This Is How It Begins

When American friends ask me if it is safe for them to visit Lebanon, I usually tell them about my experience during the summer war between Israel and Hizballah in 2006. Although the United States was actively arming and encouraging Israel to stage military operations that resulted in a large number of Lebanese civilian casualties, only one Lebanese person took out their anger and frustration towards me personally as an American: a young man standing in the rubble of his former neighborhood in south Beirut on the day of the cease-fire. And even then, his anger was more rhetorical than physical. "We will be a thorn in the eye of Israel and America!" he shouted. "An undying thorn!"

The morning after a US Embassy vehicle was attacked in northern Beirut, Lebanon still seems like the welcoming country that it has been for me since I moved here in 2003. The sun is shining; it's clear and pleasantly cold; there's snow in the mountains; it's ski season. The vast majority of Lebanese will always make a distinction between visiting foreign civilians and the policies of foreign governments. And yesterday's bombing wasn't any more dramatic that other recent calamities -- the war with Israel, last summer's battle in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp, the Danish embassy riot, or the bombings and street protests that have occurred just blocks away from my home.

So should Americans living or planning to visit Lebanon be worried? Well, yes actually. We are not about to return suddenly to the bad old days of embassy bombings and kidnappings, but this is how they begin: with a small warning. America is involved in a regional power struggle with Syria and Iran and uses the tools of a superpower pursue its interests -- full-scale military operations, UN Security Council resolutions, diplomatic and economic sanctions. America's enemies respond with the tools at their disposal: asymmetrical warfare, political machinations, and assassinations. Until now, the targets of violence in Lebanon have been people or groups that might be seen as extensions of American or Western power: pro-American politicians, anti-Syrian journalists, and even UN peacekeepers. Now someone is ready to escalate, and target American interests directly. Who knows how far that will go?

My advice to Americans thinking of coming to Lebanon: wax your skis, make your plane reservations, but keep an eye on the news.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Beirut