Lebanon’s government is on its death bed. Having sustained so much damage from internal disputes and external shocks, it is unlikely it will survive the week.

There are questions about how the country has been once again saddled with a Cabinet on the brink of collapse, and the past few days have provided answers that may have well been evident from the very start.

Friday’s threat by Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement that it would resign from the government in the unlikely event that the Cabinet finally agrees to stump up its share of 2011 funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was one such answer. It was a maneuver that left Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s tenure on life support; after the announcement that he would step aside should the Cabinet vote against STL funding, the premier now appears damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

The FPM’s stance is the latest – and possibly the last – example of a party within government acting purely for its own benefit with total disregard for the welfare of the country. Even during its gestation, this government was stymied by individual blocs jostling for maximum personal advantage. This Cabinet was divided from its beginning; all that remains to be unearthed is if it was also doomed.

Its inability to achieve anything noteworthy throughout its tenure has led to a groundswell in criticism from the international community and Lebanese opposition, manifested in full color Sunday with March 14’s rally in Tripoli.

What emerged was a studied critique not of the government as a whole but of the specifics behind its creation. The fiery rhetoric was saved for the government of Syria, Hezbollah and its backers.

One of the most one-sided Cabinets in Lebanon’s history was facilitated by powers that are having an increasingly troublesome 2011. It is likely that any administration in Beirut would have difficulty reacting to the alarming events of Syria, but it is testament to the unevenness of Mikati’s government that it has steadfastly refused to react responsibly vis-à-vis the STL and Arab League and United Nations Security Council decisions on Syria.

If the government is indeed destined to fall next week it can blame extraneous events only so much; it really has itself to blame for successive failures.

It has taken the country aimlessly into a position that is at odds with the international community and not necessarily representative of its own population. Continued ineptitude and fecklessness at an administrative and diplomatic level has allowed Lebanon to become worryingly vulnerable to shocks in surrounding states.

There is obviously no joy to be derived for opponents on the Cabinet’s demise. Problems it has created or failed to solve have negatively affected the entire population. If the government dies next week, there will be no shortage of reasons to mourn for Lebanon.