Not only is there a tank casually parked in the northern Beirut suburb of Dora, it is also surrounded by sandbags– a tank bunker?
Since Lebanon is not technically at war or in a state of armed revolution, one would expect tanks to be deployed on the borders, not in neighborhoods. But since the end of the civil war in the early 1990s, tanks and APCs are rolled out routinely depending on the ebbs and flows of the “security situation.”
The army presence was scaled back significantly by the early 2000s, but it seems to be steadily creeping back since the Hariri assassination, the 2006 war and now events in Syria.
This should tell you something about the state of post-civil war ‘peace’ in Lebanon. Security on the ground is great, but reconciliation is also needed and I’m not sure it is going to come at the end of a 50 caliber barrel.
