Lebanon has been racked by sectarian fighting since 1975.
Instead of acting to restore order, army and militia units are themselves participating in the sectarian fighting.
Iran finds its leverage rising, especially as Iraq struggles through bloody sectarian fighting.
Peace, for an idyllic while anyway, had returned to Northern Ireland, where more than 3,200 people have been killed in sectarian fighting since 1969.
But since the war, and particularly after the sharp rise in sectarian fighting over the past year, searching has become an obsession.
One reason for that, he said, was that the American military had no desire to try to stop sectarian fighting.
They are aimed at a settlement of sectarian fighting, which has killed 3,225 in Northern Ireland since 1969.
Even so, the sectarian fighting has been bloodier than ever.
Famine and sectarian fighting have caused an estimated one million people to flee the country altogether.
The attack brought on new levels of sectarian fighting - the worst violence in more than two years, the United States military said.