At least 34 people were killed in four days of bitter street battles between opposition Hezbollah militants and their mostly Shiite allies and mainly Sunni forces loyal to the Western-backed government.
As the fighting escalated the army was left observing from the sidelines."If the army was to shoot at Hezbollah then that could lead to many soldiers and officers leaving the army. It might be split along sectarian lines," Salem said.
In his first public appearance on Saturday since the violence erupted, embattled Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called on the army to restore law and order a day after Hezbollah seized control of mostly Muslim west Beirut and routed Sunni rivals.
"I have called on the army to live up to its national responsibilities without hesitation or delay and this has not happened until now," Siniora said.
The military responded by ordering all armed militants off the streets and saying it had revoked measures taken by the government against Hezbollah which had sparked the violence.
But the standoff has exposed the fine line the army has been treading since a bitter political feud erupted and prevented the election of a new president since September, analysts believe.
"The army has always attempted to stay neutral and play the middle man,"Salem said. "People are not happy about what the army didn't do during Wednesday and Thursday."
Retired general Wehbe Katisha said that "the army did not intervene in the fighting because they cannot take part," and from a need to preserve its traditional neutrality.
"But (on Friday) it did not even protect civilians or private property. It simply failed to do its duty," said the former soldier who is close to the ruling coalition.
Opposition militiamen, in the presence of soldiers, forced the closure on Friday of Future Television, a channel owned by the family of parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri.
Media offices were ransacked and set ablaze as soldiers were reduced to relaying threats to staff to leave the premises.
"Is it possible that the army's role was limited to that of delivery boy, ferrying the militia's requests to us and telling us to cooperate?" asked west Beirut resident Wissam who witnessed the bloody fighting.
Hezbollah also detained people in several districts where violence had flared and handed them over to the army, according to many witnesses.
"When peaceful citizens are threatened, soldiers must do everything to ensure their safety," Katisha said.
French-language daily L'Orient-le Jour, which is close to the majority, on Saturday accused the army of failing to do its duty. "Not in an effort to scorn the army... only to observe, that on many occasions during the past few days the army has been at fault... this is not said to push the army to suicide, only to remind it of its most basic duties."
Even pro-opposition newspapers urged the military to take control of the situation. "The army must immediately take responsibility for security across the capital and allow only legal weapons to be kept," said the daily As-Safir.
Katisha added "the majority is very opposed to the role played by the army, in so much as the opposition believes that the soldiers have helped their supporters."
Opposition figure Suleiman Franjieh on Friday praised the role of the army and declared that if Siniora's government resigned and entrusted power to the military, the opposition would be satisfied.
While the rival factions have agreed to the election of current army chief General Michel Sleiman to the presidency they cannot agree on the make-up of the new cabinet, and so far 18 sessions of parliament to choose a new head of state have been cancelled.
