Its amazing to look at Beirut of the 1970s, and how far it’s fallen in fifty years. But then, a lot of the money which was sitting there....went off to Qatar, Dubai and Bahrain. I would almost call Beirut the ‘Baltimore’ of the Middle East now.
Once Hezbollah became a significant force in Lebanon, and particularly a significant force in the gov’t, the country’s fate was essentially sealed. I’m surprised it took this long for a pervasive collapse to occur.
Lebanon was destroyed when most of the Christians fled during/after the civil war; then it just became another primitive Muslim sandbox. When the 50/50 balance was upended, it was all over.