The Middle East knows all too well about civil war. Syria and Yemen are currently engulfed by it, and Libya isn’t far off. A civil war would likewise be devastating for the US. And who better to be the messenger of this than a Lebanese immigrant? Saleem Ghubril did exactly that on Saturday, writing an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette warning his adopted homeland of the perils of civil war following a police shooting in Dallas, Texas.
“I escaped a civil war in Lebanon, and I don’t want to see one start here,” wrote Ghubril. The Lebanese-American came to the US during the first phase of the Lebanese civil war in 1976. Observing the US presidential election that year between, Ghubril admired the degree of civility between candidates Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. “Though differences and disagreements between candidates were in vivid color, it appeared that love for country and mutual respect were the modus operandi,” he wrote.
Now, Ghubril says, conditions in America mirror those of pre-war Lebanon. “Triggers are getting pulled on innocent people, some wearing hoodies and T-shirts and others wearing uniforms and badges, before their names are known and eye contact is established,” he wrote.
The US is currently on edge. On Thursday, an African-American US Army veteran killed five police officers at a Black Lives Matter protest in the southern city of Dallas, Texas. The deadly attack followed shootings of two other African-Americans by policemen earlier that week.
The American civil war was fought between northern and southern states in the mid 19th century over slavery, states’ rights and other issues. Nearly 1,000,000 are believed to have died by some estimates. The Lebanese civil war lasted a whopping 15 years and left over 100,000 dead. One can only hope Ghubril and his fellow Americans never again share this fate.
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