With the rate of political assassinations slowing, life is returning to our city. The Lebanese have proved that they have little time for bad memories and even less interest in a propensity to save. We are big spending, short-termists who have learned to live for the moment, but with such a precarious lull in the violence, we can’t but live each day as if it is our last. Politically, the respite in targeted killings has been interpreted as a sign that, as usual, a deal was made between the Americans and the Syrians at the expense of Lebanon of course. However, judging by the relentless American pressure on Syria, the nation’s collective intelligence, this time at least, could be wrong. The Americans simply decided not to use Lebanon as a front against Syria. They realized that some Lebanese politicians were capable of sacrificing their country, fragmenting its society, destroying all
