War Nerd: "War is just demographics in a hurry." The War Nerd is back after a layoff (I hope his health is all right -- he mentioned some problem awhile ago) with an overview of Ariel Sharon's invasion of Lebanon: War is just demographics in a hurry. And Lebanon's demographics are as wobbly as the San Andreas Fault. A hundred years ago, the majority in Lebanon was a bunch of diehard Christian Arabs who called themselves "Maronites." But their majority was shrinking fast. A lot of Maronite families had emigrated (to run cheap menswear stores in the US, mostly), and a lot of Muslims had moved in.
The Muslims didn't emigrate as much; they just didn't have the money. So they did what poor folks do: stayed home and had babies. Pretty soon the Muslims were the majority.
Nobody knows exactly how big a majority, because nobody's taken a census in Lebanon for fifty years [73 to be precise, I believe]. For one thing it's too dangerous-you wouldn't want to go knocking on doors in Beirut, asking total strangers touchy ethnic and religious questions for minimum wage, would you?
"Gary Brecher on Lebanon"
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