Four weeks ago my dear friend Imad suffered a massive stroke. What kept him alive is medical equipment given to the hospital by the American people through USAID.

That program of soft power was abruptly terminated a year ago by the white supremacist Elon Musk acting on behalf of the white supremacist Donald Trump.

Noticing the USAID tag on the medical equipment, Imad’s son remarked: “The US used to be our benevolent overlords. Now they’re just our overlords and future stroke victims will just die.”

It was not just medical equipment that USAID used to grant institutions around the world but also scholarships and educational opportunities, in addition to other means of economic development.  It was a savvy way to court the next generation of leaders and to develop the purchasing power of a trading partner.  In Lebanon, the loss of these educational opportunities has led to a reduction in students and staff at the universities.

High quality education provides Lebanon with its stock in trade: a multi-lingual workforce of skilled professionals, mostly in the medical and engineering spheres.  Many work in the Gulf and in Europe and send home remittances. Some stay in Lebanon, making it a regional medical center with a robust medical tourism trade.  Their salaries make Lebanon a market for the manufactures of the West. 

Soft power like USAID brought the USA world admiration when it instituted the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe, allies and former foes alike, after the destruction of WWII. The lessons from WWI were clear –  humiliating and impoverishing an enemy population would lead to another war. Maybe it sticks in Trump’s craw that General Marshall received the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Other countries are still using their soft power here effectively. Norway restored traffic lights in key intersections here after the bankrupt Lebanese government could no longer afford this basic road safety measure.  European countries still offer scholarships for study. The European Union supports an array of humanitarian and economic development projects here. 

Russia, too, exercises its soft power in Lebanon.  It has long projected itself as the protector of the Orthodox Christians and, by extension, all Christians: Imad’s grandparents kept a picture of the Tsar and Tsarina on their living room wall even after they became Protestants. Russia established schools here, now run by the Greek Orthodox Church. Russia has helped with rebuilding after wars and the port explosion. It donates wheat and fuel to Lebanon. It contributes to cultural life. It offers scholarships to study in Russia. Russia has thousands of Lebanese graduates of its universities to present the Russian viewpoint on events. Imad is one of them.

Now Lebanon is suffering a far more consequential collapse of American soft power than the elimination of USAID: the immoral and incoherent war with Iran.  President Obama’s  diplomatic triumph, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2016, prevented Iran from manufacturing weapons grade nuclear power by a system of verification through the International Atomic Energy Agency.  Verification is done by water testing. It is nearly foolproof.

President Trump tore up the agreement in 2018, to the delight of Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu.  This cost Prime Minister Hassan Rouhani, the centrist president of Iran who promoted the nuclear deal, his political future after his term ended . Thereafter, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an authoritarian who sold off state property in the manner of American Republicans and British Tories, ensured that the Iranian political class hewed to his agenda.  His diplomatic efforts were towards Russia and China.  

Was scuttling the JCPOA a set-up or what? 

We’ve been done this road before.  President Bush and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice attacked Iraq citing false information about its nuclear program.  The IAEA found no evidence of a weapons grade nuclear program in Iraq and were proven, belatedly, correct. The IAEA is saying the same thing about Iran now, to no avail.

We’re dealing with the consequences of this diplomatic calamity here in Lebanon and in the wider region.  In response to Khamenei’s assassination by Israel, Hezbollah fired three rockets into Israel.  Just the excuse Netanyahu needed to start bombing Lebanon’s Shi’a again up and down the country again. 

Here in the hospital we feel the attacks when the waiting room window rattles at bomb blast a few miles to the South or the nurses rush in to open the windows of the ICU in case glass shatters. The country is straining to absorb the internally displaced, a pitiful sight.

Imad is now out of the ICU, partly thanks to the American people and USAID. His new room gives us a view of smoke rising from Israel’s bombing of Beirut’s Shi’a neighborhoods. Salamtak, Imad, get well soon. Salamtik, America, get well soon.