BEIRUT -- Dark clouds loom on Lebanon's horizon. In the streets, young men gather weapons. Off the Mediterranean shore, U.S. warships have approached for the first time since the 1980s. The Shiite militia Hezbollah boasts that it has rearmed in preparation for the next round of conflict with Israel. Throw in a series of bombings and assassinations and a paralyzed government, and the words "tipping point" come to mind.
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Political tensions in the early 1970s between Christians and Muslims mushroomed into a 15-year civil war. An Israeli invasion in 1982 devolved into an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. A 2006 Hezbollah operation to take a couple of Israeli hostages to trade for other prisoners turned into a monthlong war and an international crisis that drew in the U.S., France, the United Nations and the Arab League.
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