One Bullet Wrote the History of Lebanon

SALMA RAYDAN

ESLINTG-100

OCTOBER 6, 2011

One Bullet Wrote the History of Lebanon

An ancient fabulous mosaic that presented the pluralism of the Lebanese religions and thoughts had been broken and turned into parts just with one bullet. April 13, 1975 was an unforgettable day when my country Lebanon lost its precious united mosaic and had been burned out to a huge ash pile. The war horns declared the beginning of the Lebanese civil war that invaded every inch from my homeland. One morning when my mom was coming back from shopping, she got shocked as soon she opened the door. The house was upside down and my father was screaming from the other room: the army became divided and the war began. She tried to calm him down, so she convinced him to stay.After three days, on Sunday morning an RBG, this is an anti-tank missile, landed in their dining room. For their luck, they were outside. It was no time for negotiation; it was the time to leave. They left the house with the clothes they had on and nothing more. This war was so painful and hard for all Lebanese people including my family, it did cost them a lot and hurt them deep inside. Their survival came at a high price.

Losing the house and all their property at the old house was too hard for the family. Due to my father’s military service, he got located at the military station in Tripoli in northern Lebanon. After getting married my parents decided to rent a house near the station. It was their first place; they had my two older brothers and sister at that house. It was the first playground for their little tiny toes to run and play, and the smell of that garden full of jasmine and pomegranate was my mom’s favorite one. Unfortunately after the war, and with the problems inside the national army, some gangs who had weapons and bombs started to rob the people and rape their women. They used to force the people to give them everything: gold, money and property. If you were lucky and you were from their religion, you were free to go. If you were not, you did just sign out your death paper. Because of that, my family wound up to another place to survive where the religion matched.With that exodus, all the memories and the laughing sounds of that house just disappeared away into the war fog, just like ghosts. They said goodbye to those memories and to their calm house, while it was crashing down under the bombs and the missiles.

Even though the war was based on political problems and external greed, it turned suddenly into a religious war. Because of that change, each general from the army decided to protect his own religion and skip his country’s task. This horrible situation made my father decide to quit the army.

It is an honor to be a soldier and to save our country, but when the rule turned over and the concept changed from killing the enemy to killing those fromother religion, the honor became a shame. What pushed my father more was the loss of his cousin, Ramez. He was a soldier who refused to shoot eleven people just because they were not from the same religion. He disagreed with his general and paid the price. He got one bullet in his head, but in fact he got a medal of honor in our heart. This conflict inside the military generals cost the country a lot of loss, and made my homeland a big cemetery for more than 200,000 fatalities. Due to this conflict, Lebanon became a mess. During the war, the death ghost visited each house in my country and went out with many martyrs.

Unfortunately in the case of war all the laws and rules are out the window. Only the law of the jungle could manage the war game. Although there were too many good people who refused to join the war, there were too many insane criminals on the roads. Who took the advantage while others paid the price. My sister Mona was fourteen months at that time. She was a little chubby girl and the first grandchild of the family. At that time it was her first weeks of walking, and the day after the war began, she got a very bad fever. My father took her to the doctor who had a clinic in El-Kepa Street on the corner. One hour later they came back and she was better but listless. That sae day at night, while my parents were watching the TV, my mother saw Mona playing alone so she asked her to come walking to her arms. She walked slowly with that beautiful smile on her face, but then suddenly she fell down. She tried to stand up again and again, but she could not. My sister never walked again to the last moment of her life. It was discovered that she got a drug overdose from that criminal doctor. My father tried to find him and asked about him in every clinic and hospital, but it wasworthless. The war was on and he did not want to lose anything more. He just ran away and tried to save his family’s souls.

The Lebanese civil war stabbed a knife into every Lebanese family’s heart. It dug on the pages of history how the wrong way of faith, the wrong way of thinking could cost the country the death of many of his young adolescent and elder people and how one bullet could be the key for a national cemetery. As a result, my parents did not accept the truth and did not believe that their little angel lost her wings and she would never fly around themagain. She paid the price of war. But at the end they thanked God that she was still alive. It did not matter that if she could walk, run, jump or dance again. She became paralyze and it melted their heart but at least she stayed alive. She was the small picture of what happened to Lebanon. Lebanon got injured, suffered from pain, destroyed and burned out but he kept breathing in our hearts.

After thirty six years, Istill ask myself if the war is over or not. Are the Lebanese regretful of what happened? I still imagine if we could go back in time, are they going to do the same mistake and go through the war again? Unfortunately, they are still the same. My parents are still the same, and our friends from other religion are the same. For me, this is not a faith. This is a lie that we used to take what was not for us in the name of God. We became people who would kill and steal in the name of God, people who could open fire and begin a war in the name of God. God is one for all, so the country is one for all too.

Let our faith be a faith in one God, in ourselves as human beings, and let Lebanon refresh again. Let’s give the country the breath and let’s take our hands together and rejoin that puzzle from all the religions. Let’s color that mosaic and give her the life again for good.