ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how the intellectual climate that led to the Powell Doctrine's call for clear objectives relates to the need for a clear "exit strategy" and the need for public support. Lebanon has, since its creation in 1919, been an unstable mix of various confessional and ethnic groups. Lebanon was established as a majority Christian state, but, by the time of the Israeli invasion, this was no longer the case. This change in the balance of the population had led to a vicious civil war breaking out in 1975. Complicating the balance of forces in this civil war was the fact that Syria has never recognized Lebanon's right to exist. Syria regarded Lebanon as part of its own national territory which had been stolen by the French at the end of the First World War. Since the mid-1970s, the South of Lebanon had become a focal point for Palestinian terrorism, directed against Israel.
