The July war had many similarities to the outbreak of the 1975 hostilities – most notably in how it began, with a political party dragging the nation into conflict – suggesting that 31 years and $45 billion of (unofficial) public debt later, not much has changed. Lebanon and its government were bypassed in the decision to wage war with the fourth-largest army in the world, and both today face serious economic consequences. Early estimates of the economic impact of this short but nasty war show that billions are needed to rebuild the damaged infrastructure; further billions have been lost in the form of income and opportunity costs. Economic growth and investment activity have been reduced to a crawl. Adding up the bill According to the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), the largest single infrastructure cost is rebuilding housing units, which until now has been estimated at around $2.2 billion
