Why did Syria intervene in favour of the Maronites during the Lebanese Civil War?
score:7
Syria is controlled by Alawites who follow a specialized, somewhat secretive religion. This religion is often described as "shiite muslim," but that is a gross oversimplification. The Alawites have friendly, although sometimes uneasy, association with not only the Maronites, but with other Christian and non-Christian minorities including the Druse and others. As a minority in their own country the Alawites have to ally with many other groups, one of which is the Maronites.
The dynamics of the war against the Maronites, like most wars, was complicated and describing it as just an attack by the PLO overlooks many other facets.
The bottom line is that Syria does not want a situation in Lebanon in which there is a radical Sunni hegemony. They want a diverse polity that includes the Maronites and recognizes and is friendly to the Alawites. The PLO and other Sunni radicals were threatening that balance, which explains the intervention.
Upvote:0
I am reading the same book you are refering to. There is another reason as well why this is perplexing. My impression from reading the book is that the non-Christian population supported reunification with Syria, so it would seem that Syria would have had an interest in supporting those who would want to be part of Syria. One possible explanation I can think of is that they did not want the PLO to become to powerful, as they might destabilize Syria in the same way that they were destabilizing Lebanon, and as they had earlier destabilized Jordan. I posted a similar question as this on another site.
One answer I got there was that the Maronites were fighting on the same side as the Shia population in the south. I have never read about this before.
Upvote:3
The Maronites were themselves divided and some elite families engaged in Mafia style gang-wars to control valuable smuggling routes. Suleiman Frangieh - not only a notorious Maronite war-lord and Gang Boss, but also a President of Lebanon, had become close friends with the Assads (who took control of Syria). He invited the Syrians in to Lebanon. His son was killed by Maronites, not Muslims, and he relied on the Syrians to take revenge.
More post
- 📝 Did liberalism in the USA degenerate into something more totalitarian than liberal?
- 📝 Whose colors/coat-of-arms did men-of-arms wear in a feudal army, 14th century?
- 📝 Historical examples of energy wars
- 📝 Muslim population in Islamic Iberia
- 📝 Are there any examples of two medieval kingdoms trying to unify but eventually failing to do so?
- 📝 Why did the Monitor and Merrimac (aka Virginia) have such radically different designs?
- 📝 Umar ibn Khattab and Omar as a Western given name
- 📝 What was the Catholic Church trying to do in Spain in the 1930s?
- 📝 Why was Stalin chosen as the First General Secretary in 1922?
- 📝 Why was the Soviet Union unable to stop the violence in Nagorno-Karabakh?
- 📝 What does this Samurai crest mean?
- 📝 When were the most reigning monarchs related to each other?
- 📝 Is it true that Germans in World War 2 did not suffer punishment for refusing genocidal orders?
- 📝 Are there any good examples in earth history of two religions co-existing?
- 📝 Was Casablanca a "safe" place for the Allies to hold a global conference in January, 1943?
- 📝 How often were Soviet records faked?
- 📝 What happened to the colonial estates belonging to loyalists after the American Revolution?
- 📝 What were the Ethiopians doing in Xerxes' army?
- 📝 Please help me identify the military uniform in picture below
- 📝 Why is there a gap of information in Russia for human migration?
- 📝 Where is Havillah, the land of gold, described in Genesis?
- 📝 What was John Buchan's position on Jewish immigration?
- 📝 Are the following 5 tenets of historical record examination considered complete today?
- 📝 What's the significance of "Sprinkler" (bottle)
- 📝 Has the drought also revealed ancient structures in France as it did in Ireland?
- 📝 What prevented the Romans from naval expansion?
- 📝 What is the manifestation of the Holy Roman Emperor reign in Italy?
- 📝 How thick was Late Medieval horse armor?
- 📝 What was the hippie movement? Why did it decline?
- 📝 What, exactly, was the role of Bertrand du Guesclin in the Hundred Years' War?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did Syria intervene in favour of the Maronites during the Lebanese Civil War?
- 📝 Why did the Union army favor a "western" route to approaching Richmond during the American Civil War
- 📝 Why did the Byzantines not try to recover Syria during the war between Ali and Muawiya?
- 📝 Did the King of Siam offer war elephants to the Union during the Civil War?
- 📝 Why did the Arabs start the 1973 War during Ramadan, and did it affect their performance?
- 📝 What uniforms did each of the American Civil War regiment wear during First Bull Run / First Manassas
- 📝 How and why did the Cavalry lance temporarily fall out of favour during the 16-18th centuries?
- 📝 Why did the German Military and Police not intervene during the years of NSDAP ascend?
- 📝 Why did the French "surrender" all of its troops during the armistice in World War II?
- 📝 During the American Civil war did gunboats range far into enemy territory?
- 📝 Did US soldiers typically keep an official journal or log during the Civil War era?
- 📝 Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
- 📝 Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Why didn’t Japan attack the West Coast of the United States during World War II?
- 📝 Why did LBJ, a staunch segregationist, champion and sign the 1964 Civil Rights Bill?
- 📝 Why did the Roman military start to favour swords over the spear phalanx?
- 📝 Why did Hitler declare war on the USA?
- 📝 Why did Civil War officers tell their men to "aim low"?
- 📝 Did the Soviets excel in one area of weaponry during World War II?
- 📝 How did the Nazis plan to defeat America during World War II?
- 📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
- 📝 Why did Chamberlain act to appease Hitler leading up to the outbreak of World War 2?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union out-pace the US during the space-race?
- 📝 Why were Civil War battle techniques so bloody, if the US had learned guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War?
- 📝 Why didn't China assist in the Vietnam War like they did in Korea?
- 📝 Why did the Mongols destroy the library during the siege of Baghdad in 1258?
- 📝 Why did the USSR stop in the Winter War against Finland in 1940?
- 📝 Why did the United States enter World War I?