How The Wire explains Lebanese politics

At the end of the third season of The Wire, the fictional HBO series, a Baltimore drug gang led by Avon Barksdale is arming up to take revenge on a rival gang for the murder of his top lieutenant, Stringer Bell. Barksdale, however, knows that Stringer wasn’t killed by the rival gang, but rather had ...

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CORRECTS NAME OF PHOTOGRAPHER--Lebanese soldiers guard the streets as supporters of the Future Movement gather during a demonstration in support of the caretaker prime minister Saad Hariri (banner) in coastal city of Sidon, south of Beirut on January 25, 2011, as hundreds of people converged on the northern city of Tripoli to take part in a 'day of rage' over the likely appointment as prime minister of Hezbollah-backed tycoon Najib Mikati. AFP PHOTO/MAHMOUD ZAYAT (Photo credit should read MAHMOUD ZAYAT/AFP/Getty Images)

At the end of the third season of The Wire, the fictional HBO series, a Baltimore drug gang led by Avon Barksdale is arming up to take revenge on a rival gang for the murder of his top lieutenant, Stringer Bell. Barksdale, however, knows that Stringer wasn't killed by the rival gang, but rather had fallen as part of a conspiracy of his own making and tries to explain to his top enforcer what really happened.

At the end of the third season of The Wire, the fictional HBO series, a Baltimore drug gang led by Avon Barksdale is arming up to take revenge on a rival gang for the murder of his top lieutenant, Stringer Bell. Barksdale, however, knows that Stringer wasn’t killed by the rival gang, but rather had fallen as part of a conspiracy of his own making and tries to explain to his top enforcer what really happened.

But the enforcer, Slim Charles, doesn’t want to hear it. Knowing that the gang is in the other room, arming up to go to war over the murder and with a canny understanding of the tribal vengeance dynamic that’s in play, Charles cuts off his boss.

"If it’s a lie," he empathically tells Avon. "Then we fight on that lie."

Read more.

<p> Mitchell Prothero is a writer and photographer based in Beirut. </p>

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