This was the kingdom of skyscrapers, those "high growths of iron, slender, strong, light, splendidly uprising toward clear skies," as Walt Whitman foretold in "Mannahatta" in 1881 (when the tallest buildings were 10 stories).
MORE than 100 years ago, Walt Whitman wrote with admiration of Manhattan's "tall and wonderful spires," its "high growths of iron, slender, strong, light, splendidly uprising toward clear skies".
He still commands the bulk of an army that was 50,000-strong before the uprising against him began.
Even police stations appeared abandoned; the force draws mostly from rural and working-class areas where support for the uprising is strong.
14 March leaders have been strong supporters of the uprising against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, whom they accuse of seeking hegemony over Lebanon directly and through Hezbollah and Iran.
Even intellectuals like the author Alaa al-Aswany, once a leading voice of the 2011 uprising, have expressed strong support for the new regime.
Its strong backing for the Arab uprisings has gradually turned into an apparent alignment with particular Islamist factions.
The civil war had arrived with a vengeance.Since a bomb killed four members of Mr Assad's inner sanctum in Damascus on July 18th, the regime, which had previously been facing a nationwide uprising that was strongest in rural areas, found itself battling rebels in Syria's two main cities.
The Palestinian uprising in 2000 and the strong Egyptian public opinion against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza only made things worse.
The Libyan economy had one of the world's fastest growth rates last year, according to the International Monetary Fund, reflecting a strong recovery after its collapse during the uprising that toppled Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
