In 1975, violence began to escalate in Lebanon between the Christian Government leaders and the Muslim majority. Seeing an opportunity, the PLO got involved and Lebanon broke out into Civil War. To help fight the two groups the government asked Syria to help driving out the PLO and putting down the Muslim uprising. Syria helped with both, but then after did not leave and eventually switched sides and began fighting with the Muslims against the Government. Afraid of what might happen, Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. What once was such a beautiful nation and functioning democracy had turned into a war zone with repercussions that are still felt today.
This will be my last Class Note for the year as my semester is coming to an end. I will still be posting my Historically Speaking articles and possibly a few comments now and then. I will start up with Class Notes in Jan when the Spring term begins. I will be teaching a Modern America class that goes from WWII to as far as we can get. I am also teaching a class on the history of political parties and presidents that goes to 1896. My reading class will be on the Middle East, between those three classes there should be some good Class Notes nuggets.
Historically Speaking 