Yea ... Baghdad. Everyone's heard of it: the place we saved from Saddam; that we're now saving from the insurgents, supposedly bringing democracy to the Arabs. This expedition has lasted two years and counting, and has cost billions upon billions of dollars; the destruction of homes, schools and universities; the loss of thousands of innocent lives. Social infrastructure? There is none. Security? Still not there. And so it continues, we send more troops to protect the other troops ...
If you do pay attention to the news, all you'll hear are numbers. Has it hit you? Do we understand what violence of that scale means? What about our fellow young Americans at war, eager to make it through their tours of duty, then hopefully move back home to pursue a college education? How much does it really matter to us? Why would it? After all, we're diligent college students - life is hard enough. We have our own concerns: dealing with the frustration of computer problems, the pressure of school work and housing issues, of emotional turmoil, and of unsatisfied libidos. And when we're done working, we go home, it's the weekend. We have to figure where the party's at, what to wear, how to get alcohol, what strategies to use to get with that girl or guy we've been stalking on The Facebook or AIM. Or maybe it's which club/bar to hit up, and whether or not that fake ID will do the trick.
Well, one constant in many of busy lives is BEIRUT. Whether you're international, American, male, female, a freshmen or a senior, you know this game. To most, the word "Beirut" brings up hazy memories of cups and ping pong balls, along with a good deal of beer. How many of you - even for a moment - think of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon? The city that is currently making the news for a messy Syrian pullout that marks the end of a heavily oppressive 30-year occupation. The city that has seen a recent spate of bombings that threatens to destabilize an already fragile situation. But, why, you may ask, should a few deaths here and there, a few more bombs, bother the people of a region in which this is a conceived norm?
Well, to a great deal of us Lebanese and Lebanese Americans, this brings back painful memories of a civil war that lasted from 1976 to 1990. Coincidentally, it seems that on this campus, it is also the source of beer pong's alias. The ping pong balls thrown into the cup symbolize the bombs dropped onto the city that was once known as "the Paris of the Middle East." That's fun. During the fifteen year war, Lebanon lost 152,000 people, a quarter of which were children. More than 250,000 of the nation's four million population fled the country.
I find it hard to suck in the fact that the United States is so caught up on being politically correct, when naming a drinking game based on the bombing of innocent civilians goes by so smoothly and so frequently. Even more surprising is the fact that this happens at an establishment such as Tufts University, which supposedly has a solid IR department and is one of the few schools that offers a major in Middle Eastern studies. I guess that happens because so few of us realize what Beirut is, or how many people have suffered from that war. I guess so few realize how bad the situation is in so many other countries around the world too. We do after all, live in our little Tufts bubble.
So why not just switch the name of the game to Baghdad? I mean, it would be less anachronistic. After all, we Americans are directly responsible for the bombings going on there. And they are going on as we speak. I just think Beirut is now so pass?©, and it never hurts to freshen things up a bit and make them more accurate of our time. A name such as "Baghdad" would simply be trendier, like those Uggs we've been seeing around all winter long.
Many of you are probably pretty offended by this Viewpoint. But honestly, that is not my intention, and those of you who know me, know that I still love you very much no matter how often you all play Beirut, an activity in which I myself have taken part. I am neither blaming nor claiming that simply because you play the game, you don't know where and what Beirut, the city, is. I guess in the end, all I am trying to do is to have people consider the fact that, to some of us, calling a drinking game Beirut does not bring such pretty thoughts to mind. In such a situation, the emphasis placed on being politically correct just adds to an already long list of hypocrital phenomena in this country.
Hopefully, with a bit of luck, I also hope that in the future, those of you who didn't know before will be saved from erroneously attributing the name of the Mediterranean capital to the frivolous college drinking game.
It's quite possible that Beirut, the game, really does have nothing to do with Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. However, I sincerely doubt it, and am still waiting for the exact origin of this nomenclature. Anyway, as bitter as I might sound about it, to any of you who'd like to further discuss the issue in the future, just hand me a beer or two, and that'll usually loosen me up a bit for the chat. Oh, and for those of you who might not know, and in case you do decide to rename the game "Baghdad:" according to the U.S. military, since the beginning of the war in Iraq, an estimated 1,565 American lives have been lost. The estimated total number of Iraqi casualties (just 'cause they are people too) is around 23,000. That's more than four times the population of Tufts undergrads and approximately 12,000 times the number of cups one needs to play a round of Beirut.
Cheers.
Aline Sara is a junior majoring in psychology.
