Lebanon, a Nation Destroyed

"We have nothing in the port: not an arms depot, nor a missile depot nor missiles, nor rifles, nor bombs, nor bullets, nor nitrate."                                                          Hassan Nasrallah, head, Hezbollah

"We will hang the gallows."                                                                                    "We are anticipating tens of thousands of people to protest in Beirut and other cities in Lebanon on Saturday."                                                                             "We are likely to see a return to the earliest days of the protest movement that began in October. But the anger and devastation wrought by the explosion coupled with the sharp decline in quality of life -- means that the upcoming period is likely to be more violent than before."                                                                                                 Joel Gulhane, analyst, Risk Advisory Group, United Kingdom

"It is a complete disaster."                                                                                     "We are working without water, without electricity -- we have a corrupt government. Now with what happened, I don't believe we can do anything anymore."             "How do we fix the elevators, water supply, electricity?"                                              "[Our family home and business look like] an atomic bomb has gone off."              "If you want to buy aluminum, you want to buy glass, you want to buy paint, you want to buy anything -- you need fresh money ... If you go to the bank, they cannot give it to you."                                                                                                            "I don't think we'll get anything from the government, all we can hope for is money from the international community."                                                                                Yusef Karam, Beirut resident, 230 metres from the blast site

"Lebanon barely produces any glass, so how do we rebuild any of this?"            "I've owned this pharmacy for 35 years, I lived through the war. I have never seen such a moment. Within ten seconds, I lost everything."                                           Paul, pharmacy owner, Gemmayzeh area, Beirut

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) walks with Lebanese President Michel Aoun upon his arrival at Beirut airport, on August 6, 2020 two days after a massive explosion devastated the Lebanese capital in a disaster that has sparked grief and fury. French President Emmanuel Macron visited shell-shocked Beirut on August 6, pledging support and urging change after a massive explosion devastated the Lebanese capital in a disaster that left 300,000 people homeless. Thibault Camus / POOL / AFP

Hundreds of thousands of residents of Beirut struggle with thoughts of the future, unable to visualize how they will ever be able to restart their lives after a catastrophic blast that destroyed Beirut's port, surrounding buildings and thousands of homes, leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. An estimated 150 people died in the explosions, which left 5,000 people injured, flooding Beirut's already stressed and overcrowded hospitals at a time when they were coping with COVID-19 admissions.

A country already struggling with a severely depressed economy, begging for loans to keep itself afloat, where a massive unemployment figure reflects the fallout of the global pandemic lockdown hitting an already depressed financial situation, where banks will not release funds to people desperate for cash. The blast that destroyed the warehouse carrying the incendiary ammonium nitrate, all 2,750 tons of it, is considered to have been ignited by fireworks that began a fire in the warehouse they were stored in, where a welder is held to have sparked the initial reaction.

The giant silo next to the warehouses which stored 80 percent of the nation of 6 million's wheat storage means a desperate shortage of food, with its destruction. Rescue teams searching for survivors have discovered a tunnel and underground rooms beneath the destroyed port. Which certainly sounds consistent with the terror group Hezbollah importing/smuggling/receiving munitions shipped through the port and stored subterraneously. Those aware of insider information speak of Hezbollah control of the port.

Certainly, port authorities who had attempted over the six years of the incendiary chemicals' storage to convey to the ruling elite the dangers inherent in storing the ammonium nitrate among a large civilian population, and they were desperate to have the material removed, but their pleas went nowhere. Even so, government authorities claim to have had no knowledge that the material was even stored at the port. Someone authorized their retention and storage from an impounded and finally owner-abandoned vessel.

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Lebanese have been through decades of war and insecurity, sectarian and tribal suspicion and violence.  Moored in a period of financial strain, coping with a global pandemic, stress between Hezbollah and those who wish them gone, resentment at the manipulative influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran, hosting a million Syrian refugees fleeing their government's lethal violence against its rebellious citizens, the people of Lebanon hardly expected that things could get any worse.

Now they're adamant; they want the entire government to resign. This is not a new demand by any means; it began in the third quarter of 2019, and continues, strengthened to the present day, hugely exacerbated by the destructive blast that levelled a third of the city. Searching desperately for someone to blame, President Michel Aoun suggested a missile aimed at the port by a foreign enemy source would have been the catalyst of the two explosions.

He will not agree to an international investigation, insisting the blast could have been caused by "negligence or foreign interference through a missile or bomb", leaving one thinking 'now who could that foreign interference conceivably be?', the question speedily answering itself. When all else fails, place the blame on the Jewish state. That experts have swiftly discounted such a theory in pointing to a fire burning at the port warehouse initiating the explosion, that too is rejected. 

Many foreign countries have offered assistance, ranging from search and rescue special units, to medical professionals to aid in dealing with the crisis, and the government of Lebanon simply has no interest in these offers stating baldly that it will accept cash in aid, keep the rest away. Lebanese leaders quite simply refuse to take any responsibility. And for that the Lebanese population is beyond furious, exacerbating an already tense situation.

One member of the Lebanese parliament and one of its ambassadors has chosen to resign, agreeing with those who claim the blast resulted from decades of corruption and mismanagement. According to Tracy Chamoun who served as ambassador to Jordan, the disaster resulted from corrupt political elites in power since the 1975 --1990 civil war. "They all must go. This is total negligence", she fumed. 

A person draped in a Lebanese flag reacts before the ravaged port of Lebanon's capital Beirut on Sunday. International donors pledged $398.7 million Cdn in emergency aid after the capital was rocked by a deadly explosion on Aug. 4. (Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images)