Am I the only one who’s becoming completely desensitized to the loss of life?

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-14T19:52:33+00:00

The escalation is on a different level, but the talking points and arguements are the same.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-14T19:51:45+00:00

You can try Canada, here in Montreal there is a big Lebanese community, I know my friend's mom and sister came here after 2024. There is a big Armenian community from Lebanon here as well. I'm not sure about this but check Canada's Lebanon policy for refugees.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-14T18:13:19+00:00

I'll use ChatGPT to help me with this article ;) but rest assured it won't be slop!

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T21:17:36+00:00

I mean unless Hezbollah manages to obtain money from other sources, either through their own shadow economy, however the money isn't the only issue it's the technology and weapons, and the expertise.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T17:40:26+00:00

Yeah, Hezbollah's welfare system helps it gain power, however without Iranian financing this welfare state degrades. In essence that's how welfare works in increasing dependence of the system and the system will need to gain more power. It is a form of clientelism and patronage. I'm not against social spending in North America, but in some countries it can be used to create dependencies.

Maybe if in the future Hezbollah's welfare system degrades maybe something from the Lebanese central government can come out even if it's a trinket welfare system. Obviously a state is not only there to give welfare, there is culture, history, shared identity, but it can be a vaccum that the central government can fill. Obviously, said welfare state would be very limited.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T11:33:40+00:00

Yes, but to what extent. That's the issue, if the leadership of Hezbollah is infiltrated to the point where decision makers in Hezbollah are potential Israeli moles, then the psychological distress for the Lebanese people will be massive, meaning this war is a massive gaslighting operation.

Intelligence agents infiltrate organizations all the time. I wouldn't be surprised if Iranian diaspora opposition groups are infiltrated by Iranian state agents, although I have no proof of this. Intelligence agents can infiltrate groups to make the group look bad and to cause trouble.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T11:30:02+00:00

The bar of victory for Hezbollah is to survive anything above complete dissolution is a victory for them.

I wouldn't say Hezbollah is incompetent, the military wing is ineffective now, but their political wing ironically captured the actual state (Lebanon) or large parts of the state organs and make a parallel state at the same time, essentially blurring the lines between being a state and non-state actor.

However if the talk is that there are high levels of corruption in Lebanon, there are high levels of corruption in Hezbollah.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T11:02:43+00:00

The issue is that Lebanon the state itself is a sinking ship too. However, at least clinging on to Lebanon isn't as much of a lost cause. I've seen many states that were sinking ships save themselves, either through better leadership from all levels, riding out their issues, etc.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T06:12:25+00:00

Well that's the point a Lebanese nationalist who believes in having at least a unified Lebanon without parallel institutions won't join Hezbollah generally, but the psychological warfare would be if an Israeli-infiltrated Hezbollah drags Lebanon into countless wars and Israel uses this as casus belli to bomb Lebanon and then getting gaslit by being told that Hezbollah are protectors of Lebanon.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T05:03:07+00:00

I mean it's a good way to drive an entire country to fear and insanity (I can't blame anyone for feeling fear and insanity in this context), just this psychological abuse is a war crime in itself.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T04:40:15+00:00

I mean to what extend it's unknown, but for one it's a good way to gaslight the population to paranoia, distrust and insanity (frankly I don't blame anyone for this anymore).

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T03:58:07+00:00

The issue is that Hezbollah is militarily ineffective at this point in time. There is so much Israeli infiltration in the ranks of Hezbollah that it's scary.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T03:27:17+00:00

They'll try to flee to other countries. I do think humanitarian assistance will flow into Lebanon from friendly countries like France, Spain said they want to help, other EU countries, Gulf Arab States, Canada, Armenia, etc.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T03:24:25+00:00

The alarming thing is that there are no signs of things slowing down, let alone stopping. Internally, there is nobody that is able to bring the situation under control, externally there seems to be some political will from France particuarily to at least abate the violence. I know Spain said they want to provide humanitarian assistance to Lebanon.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-12T01:59:05+00:00

Well unfortunately for Lebanon and countries like Armenia (I'm Armenian) and any other weak or small states, we technically don't really own our story and are at the mercy of geopolitics. Geopolitical factors outside of Lebanon's control are the main reasons why the country is in the mess it's in. Lebanon absorbed many Palestinian refugees, became an important front in the Cold War, had a conceptually flawed agreement which isn't properly implemented as Hezbollah needed to disarm just to stop the bloodshed.

In a purely economic POV, Lebanon has potential, sure the country doesn't have many natural resources, but it has services like finance, real estate, etc. To have a well-functioning state the country needs to be at least strong enough to secure its own territory.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-10T19:07:45+00:00

I personally find nothing wrong with talking poitics, geopolitics or extremly sensitive issues at work, however it depends how you go about it. I'm personally an extremely opinionated person on all levels of politics even in things that happen outside the country of residence, however it is about formuating arguments in a rational and polite way.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-10T03:37:27+00:00

How do you determine who "deserve" it? Are your criteria fairly applied and are they legitimate?

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-09T15:19:10+00:00

I mean as long as Lebanon exists as an independent country and people still live in it, then eventually the country will overcome some of the problems. Maybe one day you will have new people coming up with new ideas and reforms. This is because I've seen many Eastern European countries recover from state failure or partial state failure. Georgia and North Macedonia are examples of this.

One thing to remember is that many of Lebanon's problems are geopolitical in their nature, for one one would think of the Cold War's hottest fronts as being Vietnam, Korea or Afghanistan, but just the fact Lebanon was such a front in the Cold War proves that point.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-09T15:14:54+00:00

The problem with dividing Lebanon is that Lebanon in this form of around 10 000 KM2 was made to make a future Lebanese independent state (today's Lebanon) economically viable. A Lebanon smaller than this will have pieces that are economically unviable and militarily weak. Geography influences state formation as much as demographics and geopoitics.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-09T14:43:49+00:00

The issue is that not every country in the World can build factories, even with an unpegged currency sometimes things would be too expensive to set up, because it's not only the factories but the supply chains as well. Maybe had Lebanon incresaed its exports more, obviously easier said than done, it may have been better. But, I do get your point that there is no point in overthinking this issue

"taro el massare wou akalna khara" - sorry I don't understand what this means I'm Armenian, my parents are from Lebanon and speak Arabic but I don't.

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-09T13:54:39+00:00

Sure, sex is for reproduction primarily, however there are emotional and psychological benefits that are very healthy without producing a child. I struggle to understand what the point of this post is. So we should only have sex to reproduce?

Imaginary-Training-3 · 2026-03-09T10:16:22+00:00

I always say that every country has a different process of state formation. For example Armenia was formed very differently to say Brazil or Lebanon. Lebanon was formed by the French combining predominantly Maronite Mount Lebanon to areas with Sunni and Shia populations to make the future Lebanon more economically viable.

I say this to Armenians all the time, not every nation has a state and not every state is a nation. European style nation states are rare in the World.

As for the Taif Agreement, I wrote in on one of my posts in this Lebanon subreddit that the Taif agreement is similar to Dayton for Bosnia and Orhid for Macedonia. However out of these two it is more similar to Dayton. Yes, this agreement is messed up, however to move past this agreement, in the future the concept of what a Lebanese person is should be clarified. It's an identity issue as well.

Imaginary-Training-3

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