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In Lebanon, Shock Turns to Fury

Jamie Dettmer

   ROME - Numbness and shock at first -- now fury. The massive blast at
   Beirut's port Tuesday night that wrecked large parts of Lebanon's
   capital is likely to have as enduring an impact on the impoverished
   Mediterranean country as the 2005 assassination offormerPrime Minister
   Rafik Hariri, say diplomats and analysts.

   The question, though, is whether the impact will be for the good.

   The 2005 killing triggered the Cedar Revolution, forcing a withdrawal
   of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Briefly it held out, too, the promise of
   a peacefuldemocratizationof a country that has been ruled along rigid
   sectarian power-sharing lines since a devastating civil war three
   decades ago tore Lebanon part.

   Even before the explosion, many Lebanese had had enough of a
   deal-making system seamed with corruption and incompetence, a political
   set-up that's mismanaged the economy, bringing it to the brink of
   collapse. Weak state institutions have floundered in curbingthe spread
   of thecoronavirus. As the country has sunk deeper into an economic
   crisis, which has seen the currency collapse, inflation soar and
   poverty rise, sectarian leaders have clung on to their political clout
   and their monetary perks.

   Street protests since last October have done little to shake the power
   of the warlords and religious leaders. The blast that has left at least
   145 dead, 5000 injured and 300,000 homeless is being widely seen in
   Lebanon as a symbol of the rottenness of the state.

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