Haugbolle 139Bashir Jumayil and Samir Ja ́ja ́ who appear in his account are far from
righteous, national leaders. As much as any other participant they com-
mitted awful atrocities. Shaftari speaks as someone who used to occupy a
position within the very sectarian realm that he criticizes, and by doing
this he distances himself from it and implicitly annuls the past. His apolo-
gies become confessions in the Christian sense of the word and grant him
absolution for his sins; absolution for what he did during the war as well
as for having belonged to a sectarian mindset in Lebanon.
Foot soldiers remember the war
In a number of interviews published in the big Lebanese dailies since the
late 1990s, former militiamen from all factions except for Hizbullah remi-
nisce and reflect on what they did during the war. Asked how they relate
to the misdeeds they committed, they repent and apologize, but only in
abstract terms. None of them go as far as Shaftari and none admit to kill-
ing anyone during the war. Therefore these interviews can hardly be con-
sidered full apologies, which would address themselves to a victim and
name the crime. Instead of taking the blame, these former foot soldiers
direct a great deal of bitterness towards their former and present leaders.
First, they reproach them for having manipulated the Lebanese people
before the war and for having lied to them about their enemy:
The leadership implanted feelings of sectarianism in us and
emphasized that the Muslim was the enemy. (Niqula, the LF).^50
Only the zu‘amā’ gained anything. Today they are MP’s and
ministers and they couldn’t care less about the fate of those
who died. They died for nothing. And the war ended without
resolving anything. We don’t understand how it ended. They
forced us into fighting by saying: kill, or you will be killed.
They are laughing at us today. If only Sayyid Musa Sadr had
been here today to change the situation ... (Hussein, Amal)By presenting themselves as victims of a historical condition, in which
various ideologies were imprinted on them through propaganda led by