Few political or military leaders in Lebanon have ever apologised to their compatriots for the atrocities committed during the country’s civil war, which began 50 years ago. Rarer still are apologies from foreign leaders for the actions of their occupying or aggressor forces—actions that, in various forms, persist to this day.
One notable exception is the late leftist leader Mohsen Ibrahim, who in 2005 acknowledged the role of the National Movement parties in pursuing armed struggle and aligning with the Palestinians in a bid to force political change.
Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, also issued a hesitant apology for his militia’s actions during the conflict, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas expressed regret for having burdened Lebanon with the Palestinian cause in a manner that the small nation was ill-equipped to manage.
A handful of former fighters have shown remorse for their roles during those harrowing years in which domestic strife got wrapped up in foreign agendas in a combustible blend of 19th-century sectarian massacres, Cold War dynamics, and radical leftist-Islamist reformist attempts, fiercely opposed by Christian right-wingers clinging to the post-independence order established in 1943.
Yet aside from the few former combatants who named their victims and expressed genuine regret, apologies have typically been vague, with undefined recipients.
Tactically sorry
Often, those apologising were trying to offer an olive branch to ‘the other side’, which, in many cases, failed to respond in kind. Often, their apologies were offered only after the loss of political clout.
Addressed to an ambiguous ‘other’, they typically claimed to have learnt lessons from the past, professing remorse over the nation’s descent into chaos, while continuing with the same rhetoric that led to the disorder in the first place. Rarely do political leaders apologise to their own sects or parties for the suffering they endured.
