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Reader comment on item: Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir

Submitted by Igor Houwat (United States), Mar 10, 2009 at 17:39

Mr. Pipes,

I am Lebanese. I agree that our people fought each other and that we are to blame. I will say that no soldiers were more compassionate than others. I have left my country to try to have a better life and avoid this cycle of ignorance and violence that renews itself constantly.

More than half of your review is spent questioning the author's insistence at staying in Beirut, her treatment of politics and her "bias against Israel." ... I am not one who supports violence, but if you experienced what we Lebanese and war-suffering citizens were exposed to, including "mock air raids" you would understand a sentence such as, "For the first time in my life I knew pure, naked hate." What you don't seem to understand is that one has a choice to feed into that hate or not to. I understand this sentence very well and I remember the exact moment I felt it years ago, but I have chosen a different path for the better or for the worse.

Unfortunately, your language ... shows ... misunderstanding of someone who experienced war first hand. ...

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