Democracy is not a sacred idol when it is reduced to an empty shell used to legitimize organized plunder. The real question in Lebanon today is not whether we want democracy or dictatorship, but whether we want a state or a plantation. What Lebanese citizens have lived under for decades was never a true democracy; it was a corrupt oligarchic system hiding behind ballot boxes that reproduce the same leaders, the same mafias, and the same crimes each time in the name of the so-called "will of the people."
Elections in Lebanon did not serve accountability; they served recycling. Sectarian leaders looted the state while presenting themselves as communal protectors, and voters were held hostage between fear, clientelism, and economic dependency. The result was not representation, but submission. This was not democracy failing, it was democracy never being allowed to exist.
More dangerous still, this devastation would not have been possible without the presence of an illegal weapon that provided real and effective protection for corruption. Hezbollah's weapons did not protect Lebanon. They protected the corrupt political system, paralyzed the state, shattered confidence in the economy, and annihilated any hope for investment, reform, or rescue. No economy can survive under an armed mini state. No judiciary can function under threat. No sovereignty exists when a party imposes its decisions above the authority of the state and ties the fate of an entire country to foreign regional axes.
This weapon was not a bystander to the collapse; it was an active partner. It provided political and security cover for those who looted public funds, blocked any serious attempt at accountability, intimidated judges, and transformed Lebanon into an isolated and ostracized state. Corruption did not merely coexist with the weapon; it flourished because of it.
To claim that democracy brought ruin to Lebanon is a distortion of reality. What was imposed was not democracy, but a disguised dictatorship distributed along sectarian lines, where traditional leaders merged with illegal arms in a mutually beneficial pact. Leaders stole in the name of the sect, while an armed party enforced a balance of terror that ensured their survival. This was not governance; it was a filthy deal sealed at the expense of an entire nation.
As for the recurring fantasy of the "just dictator," it is nothing more than an escape from confronting the truth. Justice is not born from individuals, no matter how strong or charismatic; it is born from institutions. And there can be no institutions where weapons exist outside legality, no rule of law where security decisions are independent of the state, and no equality before the law when an armed party stands above accountability.