For the first time in decades, Lebanon has a year of choice. With the dramatic reversal of fortunes of Iran, the Assad regime, and their Lebanese proxy, Lebanon is finding long-lost freedoms. A key attribute of freedom is choice. With the restoration of sovereignty, the Lebanese face, a sovereign choice between war or peace. Since the 1980s, Tehran and Damascus deprived the Lebanese and their political institutions of that decision-making capacity, using Lebanon as the landscape for their conflicts with Israel. The Assad family, the Iranian ayatollahs, and the security establishments surrounding them were happy to fight their wars to every last Lebanese. The resulting cycle of violence with Israel is all-too familiar to every Lebanese, as is its high toll in human, social, and economic losses.
With Hezbollah a shadow of its former self for now, Tehran and Damascus can no longer make those decisions. They are finally within the grasp of the Lebanese state, reflecting the will of the Lebanese people. Of course, freedom entails responsibility. Lebanese leaders and citizens now face not only the freedom to choose, but the burden of consequences of those choices.
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