This Time Use the United Nations

By George Thompson

Writing about Beirut does not come easy—not simply because it was our first foreign service post—because my family and I left bits and pieces of our hearts there.

This is a very personal collection of words: Lebanon is where we received an unexpected gift—the birth of our second son. With our first son, 14 years his senior, my wife and I covered virtually every inch of the ancient land of Lebanon—camping, living, learning—and loving every waking moment.

Lebanon is where I lived for weeks in the home of a less-than-affluent Arab family to learn their language.

Lebanon also is where we came within minutes of buying a small stone house on a hillside overlooking Jounieh's picturesque port. After 33 years of living abroad and sailing an ocean-going yacht over half the world, it still beckons as the perfect place to retire.

We lived for five delightful years in Beirut—a city of a dozen cultures and as many languages—where one could live on a penny or a pound.

But that was a world ago, and then when the city was a slice of heaven. Those of us who knew it well called it the "Paris of the Middle East."

But this is the here and now, when life there must be a living hell. The years have not treated Lebanon well. Neither have the big powers.

The UN, so often underemployed and ignored in the past, could decide the future—if the US would support it.

If ever there was a living example of the fallacy of playing politics with peoples' lives, Lebanon is it. Its destiny should have been seen in its constitution: Census guesstimates at its birth gave a Maronite Christian majority its president, Sunni Muslims its prime minister, and other minorities various parliamentary seats.

Time and changing demographics made a mockery of it all. Attempts in the late 1950s to conceal a census—which revealed that Muslims outnumbered all others—led to squabbling in parliament and violence in the streets. Fear brought the marshalling of arms and men among religious factions.

With fear came anarchy and chaos, while Syria and Israel watched and waited, each for different reasonscovetingthe land being fought for. The US did nothing for Lebanon-except to shell its hillside villages-but everything for Israel while holding Syria at bay.

So much for Lebanon yesterday and today. What about tomorrow?

The United Nations, so often underemployed and ignored in the past, could decide the future—if the US would support it. It could:

Convene an international conference of the major powers to explore a UN solution.
Invite heads of Lebanon's myriad factions, as well as the Arab League.
Begin, under UN supervision, a systematic reduction of heavy weapons, missiles, and explosives being imported and used by competing factions within the country. Put UN patrols along its Syrian border. Strengthen those along the Israeli border.
Explore the viability of UN-supervised elections, leading to a new Lebanese parliament, president, and prime minister.
Encourage rewriting the Lebanese constitution to remove or replace such requirements as using religious affiliation to determine political power.
Eliminate all outside influences, especially those of Syria and Israel.

The alternative is to do nothing. It is then that the entire Middle East will erupt into an even larger living hell that could engulf us all.

George Thompson, a retired foreign service officer, is a nationally syndicated columnist and television talk show host.