Browsing through the Lebanese blogs it seems that the discussion is too much focused on proving that people on the other side are plain stupid and evil and all that nonnsense. We live in a democracy ( a struggling one ) and the question should be: What is constitutional and what will help keep peace and order.
So assuming that you do agree with the above can you please tell me why you think what the the opposition or the pro-government is being unlawful ?
I would love to have a clear answer from both sides.
5 comments:
JD,
May be this article on the debt, an analysis to which I adhere, will explain my position on Lebanon. I don't think the forces in presence now in Lebanon are sectarian, I think we are in the middle of an economic nightmare and the government mentors, Sanyura, Saudi Arabia, and Hariri before, contribuited to this nightmare. I hope you read french, otherwise, I am going to translate the highlights of the article that I mentioned
Sophia, I read this piece, thanks. Before I even start agreeing with you that the economic situation is terrible ( thank god that Lebanon is a small country to be "practically bailed out" so easily) let me say this:
I don't see how the methods of Aound and Hezbullah have helped in anything. Obviously without the war lebanon would have been in a muych better place economically ( signficantly much better), and you can't disagree that the war was a consequence of Hezbullah's actions.
Oh yes we have evil neigbours, but that is something Hezbullah know very well. Second : I don't see how going down on the street, hijacking the downtown and the economic life in Beirut is any help. Sohpia, this is really what I am getting into: the US economy or the Canadian would have never been a good one, if everytime there is a "dislike" for the government, there is a chaos on the streets. They know too well that their economy can't afford this. Finally: Yes, I want Geagea and Jimblat OUT OF THE Picture, I do, but I do not think this makes aoun or hezbullah a desirable replacement. These people have lost a military and startegic war more than once. This is what my question is all about : why don't people go home and WORK for a better lebanon, and replace the government and the president DEMOCRATICALLY, and work (!) just like people do everywehere else in the world. Unemployement and pauvrety start a vicious circle that can very much end in a civil war.
J.D. I agree very much with what you write, However, to be realistic, it will be very difficult to get rid of the present political elite in Lebanon. I believe in the power of dialogue to achieve transformation. I mean Rwandans were finally able to get together and fix their country, why wouldnt lebanese do just that ? Secondly, the alliance between Aoun and Hezbollah is making good to both and reducing the extremism of both groups. I am probably aive but I believe in this. The problem with the Sanyura government is that it is too much one sided and too much involved in the neo-con project for the middle east. I am not saying that Hezbollah does not actually have foreign support, and who wouldn't, given the circumstances ? Hezbollah made an error in July but I firmly believe that Israel was preparing for this war which would have happened anyway. I think Lebanese should sit together, clean their conscience, confront their ugly past and work for the good of the country.
I don't believe that this war is sectarian, as for the 1975 war, secatrianism was used by militia leaders to advance their own agenda and separate people. I have no hate for anybody in lebanon and I am always surprised by the amount of hate that spills from some Lebanese blogs. We should cultivate a culture of reconciliation, and more than anything else the will to live together. I don't think that the LF adhere to this idea of the country but I believe that Aoun and Hezbollah have shown a lot of restraint and moderation in the face of the sanyura's government unwilligness to open up and adopt part of their agenda.
Regional tensions are exacerbating the situation in lebanon and getting in the way of a real reconciliation in the country and I see Sanyura playing much more the game of foreign powers and regional tensions than Hezbollah and Aoun.
We need to break the spell and to let lebanon breathe again and we cannot do it through a victory of one party over theother, we can only do it together. But before we will have to face our truth and our painful past. And all I see is people spitting at each other, I don't see people ready for reconciliation. Thats the sad truth and one cannot pin the blame on one party, the blame should go to all parties in the present state of deterioration of the country.
I think Hariri's major error was that he wroked his way up by playing on the divisions of the political elite while this was the time when lebanon needed badly to pull things together.
I don't know where we are heading now there but I believe firmly that the interests of lebanon cannot be achieved through another war or through the exclusion of hezbollah and Aoun from the government.
Well this is exactly what I am talking about: People are disgusted with both parties, but everyone ends up supporting one because they think it is impossible to get rid of both. But if it is impossible to get rid of both it is impossible to get rid of one. We know this very well. I do think that overtime people will come to understand that all these leaders are no good for the country. It takes time, it takes peace and economic progress and people will start to give more priority to their well being more than they do to the well being of Senioura or Aoun.
Having said that, nothing from what you said, or anyone else said convinced me that there is any reason for Hezbullah and Aoun to do what they are doing and disturb peace and the economy. The country is drifting toward civil war for no reason. Elections will come and people will decide, they HAVE to wait for elections. We live in North America, and we know that this is how the democracy is ought to function.
Besides, talking about Hezbullah: Being an armed militia in Lebanon, having started the war with Israel, being 100% pro-Syria the country that is clearly unfriendly to a democratic Lebanon, and being financed by Iran that is run by a crazy guy ( which most Iranians hate by now) this party would have been banned from political life in any decent republic. Think about the arms alone.
They're both right; both "sides" are stupid. the myth of the Lebanese intelligence is just that.
A myth.
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