Only a change in the presidency could have offered a chance for Lebanon to avoid the inexorable descent into regional, now international, drama. Two windows of opportunity opened up to this sine qua non condition – presidential change -- , in March 2005 and February 2006, but they were missed. The deadlock exacts every time more difficulties and complications preventing any fresh start with a leadership that does not belong to the Ancien Régime. As a matter of policy, the more intractable the difficulties, the more strenuous the effort to set things right, and the many regional flashpoints of doom and gloom are rendering meaningful change ever more intractable. |
