Two days ago the last episode of the opposition’s arms trafficking has been uncovered. A car loaded with brand new Kalashnikov machine guns has been seized. The owners are the infamous SSNP, a party known for its bloody past in assassinations, for its total subservience to Syria and even for its refusal to acknowledge the existence of Lebanon, calling for total unity with Syria!
This comes after several SSNP arm cashes have been uncovered in Mount Lebanon, and a truck loaded with small caliber weapons has been seized. The SSNP claimed that the arms caches were remnants from the civil war (evidence shows the contrary) and Hezbollah claimed that the arms in the truck are destined to fight Israel (but the presence of several light arms pointed to a different potential use)
Ironically the opposition’s media outlets –Al Manar TV and Al Ahkbar newspaper- have been waging a fierce campaign accusing the 14 March coalition of rearming themselves! Even though not one instance, and I repeat not one instance of arms trafficking destined to 14 March have been uncovered.
What makes these accusations even sillier is that even throughout the whole war Rafik Hariri never armed his followers, encouraging them instead to get a higher education! In addition to the fact that the Amen Al Am (the Border Police) is fully controlled by Hezbollah and its allies.
Finally, it is very clear which faction is rearming itself and who is pushing for civil war. As the old saying states “You can lie to some people all the time or you can lie to all people some of the time, but you cannot lie to all the people all the time!”
In the end no matter how good you are at lying, you will be caught!
This comes after several SSNP arm cashes have been uncovered in Mount Lebanon, and a truck loaded with small caliber weapons has been seized. The SSNP claimed that the arms caches were remnants from the civil war (evidence shows the contrary) and Hezbollah claimed that the arms in the truck are destined to fight Israel (but the presence of several light arms pointed to a different potential use)
Ironically the opposition’s media outlets –Al Manar TV and Al Ahkbar newspaper- have been waging a fierce campaign accusing the 14 March coalition of rearming themselves! Even though not one instance, and I repeat not one instance of arms trafficking destined to 14 March have been uncovered.
What makes these accusations even sillier is that even throughout the whole war Rafik Hariri never armed his followers, encouraging them instead to get a higher education! In addition to the fact that the Amen Al Am (the Border Police) is fully controlled by Hezbollah and its allies.
Finally, it is very clear which faction is rearming itself and who is pushing for civil war. As the old saying states “You can lie to some people all the time or you can lie to all people some of the time, but you cannot lie to all the people all the time!”
In the end no matter how good you are at lying, you will be caught!
6 comments :
Wait a minute! If March 14th are rearming themselves, and only Hezbollah and its subsidiary are controlling the border and weapon shipments, then the only possible conclusion is that March 14th are buying weapons from Hezbollah!
So that's where all those small arms are going. Who says Syria doesn't want Lebanon knee-deep in civil war?
Solomon2,
Bob didn't say that March 14th was rearming, only that it's being accused of doing so while HA actually is rearming.
But I think I get the jist of what your comment is trying to say.
It's getting hard to "read the tea leaves", these days with HA rearming all the while the benefactors of Lebanon: Saudi Arabia and Iran seem to be playing nice with one another.
Or is the two parent nations' recent courtship simply a rouge, biding time for a planned conflict on Lebanese soil this summer?
Is HA merely stockpiling for a rainy day, fearing a looming security crackdown coming on its future arms shipments?
Has HA, or HA factions, decided to go rogue, following the marching orders of Syria instead of Iran in hopes of igniting civil strife?
Just like anything else, only time will tell.
I do not think that it matters who is rearming or who is not; all it takes is one day and a few containers, and presto, you've got the weapons.
What you need for a civil war is the will. Hezb misunderstands the extent of resolve among the "nightclub" crowd; there is no way they can tolerate returning to the days of Syrian hegemony. And far too many people now hate Aoun for him to be an effective president, even if he reached that high. Thanks to HassAoun's cornering of "March 14", to the PSNS's assassinations, all Lebanese now have a will to fight. And kill.
Jeha said...
>all Lebanese now have a will to fight. And kill.
Well, hope it doesn't have to come to that. You've still got more cards to play on the peaceful movement front.
Every day that goes by since the opposition's promise to quickly bring down the government with its failed sit in campaign last fall-winter has to be eroding support.
Patience has the effect of bleeding the other sides resolve, too.
HA's hands have obviously been tied by Iranfor the time being and this provides a window to mobilize March 14th's campaign for freedom with a futher elaboration on why peace under the March 14th government will lead to true peace and prosperity.
Another move March 14th could pull would be to sign an agreement with Israel for the return of the disputed Shebaa Farms on the condition that all militant groups disarm themselves with verification teams being sent by Lebanon, the UN, and Israel (through its usual satellite reconnaissance) to verify that the surrender of weapons had actually taken place. And the land will remain a Lebanese property so long as the conditions of disarmament are abided by (this keeps HA from trying to give up their guns on Monday, to get Shebaa Farms back on Tuesday, and then pick up its guns again on Wednesday).
This puts HA in the cross hairs of its own people, without any risk to the Lebanese government who won't be forced to disarm HA itself.
HA has made the case for its continued struggle as being in the name of returning the Shebaa Farms to Lebanon.
And here Israel would give them the parcel of land.
HA has to either:
A) Give up its weapons, which removes all of its teeth and allows the Lebanese government to assume full control of the country (as it is legally supposed to), while greatly marginalizing HA, now that it doesn't have any means to scare people with.
B) Refuse to give up its arms, and hence go against its fundamental objective of returning Shebaa Farms to Lebanon at any cost and enraging its own support base and further losing whatever trace of legitimacy it has garnered for itself domestically and abroad.
HA, by following A or B, is in a horrible position that will further cripple its organization.
And whatever option "C" they come up with won't be enough to withstand the PR damage.
I hope you're right. I hope they can wear Hez, but the struggle is bleeding the country of its best and brightest.
And this time, they may not come back.
Jeha,
Here's an example of why waiting might be the best policy while HA is one the that gets bleed out:
http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/source/021773.html
http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/source/021710.html
Both articles talk about a high ranking Iranian Deputy Defense Minister, Ali-Reza Askari, recently defecting to the West and spilling the beans on Iranian-HA operations in Lebanon.
It's likely that Askari will be sharing significant details about how Iran has been funding and arming HA, much the same way the NCRI has provided intel on Iran's nuke program to the West.
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