The Middle East has a militia problem

TO BE lebanese is to see, in every event, the seeds of a new civil war. Recent months have provided ample cause for worry. In March residents of Rmeish, a Christian village in the south, confronted members of Hizbullah, a Shia militia and political party, as they tried to set up a rocket launcher in the town centre. Then on April 7th Pascal Sleiman, an official from the Lebanese Forces (LF), a right-wing Christian party, was abducted near the northern city of Byblos and murdered. The party’s leader was quick to hint at a Hizbullah role (it denied responsibility).