I have arbitrarily named the two opposing coalitions "Red" and "Blue" for lack of any better term. None of the names usually used for these coalitions are adequate. Most of them are propaganda in themselves, attempting to define the conflict as sectarian or national. Each side is made up of a wide variety of different factions which have their own reasons for joining the alliance. Most factions have fought against the nation they supposedly back now, and for the nation that they supposedly are against. Calling one side the “majority” and the other the “opposition” might comfort ethnocentric Europeans (or more likely ethnocentric Lebanese who think they are Europeans) but Lebanon is not run by a European-style government and neither is my country. More objective names are also available, like “March 8” and “March 14” but since I am not a robot I refuse to use 8 and 14 as names.
The two sides are:
Red
also known as
“March 14”
“anti-Syrian”
“majority”
“pro-US”
includes
Future Movement (Hariri)
PSP (Joumblatt)
Lebanese Forces (Geagea)
Blue
also known as
“March 8”
“pro-Syrian”
“opposition”
includes
Hezbollah (Nasrallah)
Amal (Berri)
FPM (Aoun)
