For literally millennia before it obtained its apparently undeserved independence in 1943, Lebanon was known as an arena in which foreign powers competed for control and influence. Accidents of history and geography contributed to this reputation, but so did the enthusiasm with which local rulers offered themselves up as vassals in return for military and/or political support from outside interests. From King Rib-Hadda in Byblos who implored an Egyptian pharaoh to rescue him more than 3,000 years ago to presidents in Baabda who asked the same of both Syria and Israel during the 1975-1990 Civil War, Lebanon has been repeatedly cursed by leaders who seek backing from abroad to make up for their own weakness at home.

Today, little has changed. A tiresome game of musical chairs has altered internal alliances, but the Lebanese politician's lust for external approval and backing remains the single greatest threat to the welfare of the Lebanese people. In a sense, it could not be otherwise. How could those benighted leaders who are propped up by foreign powers be expected to bring about their own political demise by undermining the very system that allows them to reign? They are naturally loathe to give up their privileged status, especially when no one has bothered to seriously challenge them.

So here the country sits, waiting to see which tribal federation backed by which foreign power will prevail (for now). All that is certain is that the Lebanese people will collectively come out the losers in the exercise. Their "leaders" will persist with the charade, their economy will fall deeper into recession, and their choices will be further reduced. Increasing numbers of those with the option will leave the country, and those who stay behind will be too preoccupied with keeping their families safe to mount much of a protest when the next bout of political idiocy sweeps the land.

At some point, this has to change. It is obviously too late for most of the stooges on the political stage to change their ways. They are there precisely because they have proven their usefulness as tools in the grips of foreign masters. It is the population which alone can force the emergence of better leaders by supporting only those with genuinely national agendas and ostracizing those whose outward devotion to this or that tribe only serves to conceal the strings by which they are controlled from abroad.