The owner of the leftist daily has sunk into new lows in today’s editorial.
In an article entitled “Have mercy on the Army”, which he might as well have entitled “Have mercy on the terrorists”, Talal Salman warns of a snowballing disaster that is about to befall our Army. The reason? But of course, the presumptuous “cheerleading” government which thinks it can win this war “by military means alone”, instead of wising up and forming a national unity government, which would somehow convince the terrorists of handing themselves in.
The veteran journalist not only swallowed Fathi Yakan’s empty statement that the “international Al-quaeda” is now in control of the situation, he also believes that a military victory against the thugs is “impossible”, and to top it all, he’s blaming the Sanioura government for the death of the soldiers.
Mr. Selman is somehow blinded to the fact that it is the Army itself who refuses, rightly, to compromise with the Syrian-armed terrorists. Even if the politicians do decide to retreat and negotiate, the armed forces will rebel, citing the need to hunt down their brothers’ killers.
Mr. Selman could feel threatened by a potential victory of the army and its re-emergence as a stronger, more confident and unified (gasp! American Armed) body, which would destroy Assafir’s worldview that it’s better to talk with criminals than hand them over to a strong state.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
Salman and al Safir are your predictable Arabist idiots:
Any Arab colored anything over Lebanon and its army always and forever:PLO over army, Syria over Lebanon, Hezbo over gvmnt, Islamists over state….
The only time they will side with a Lebanese institutions is when Israel is the other choice.
(On a related matter Stef, why do you link to blogs, Leb and ME, who peddle the same crap as Salman? Do you see their side linking to our blogs or do you want to win this fight with one hand tied behind your back??)
Because I think it’s important to know what the other is saying to be able to address their wrongs and learn from their rights.
And because the Market for ideas should be free and open, so that persuasion becomes the weapon of choice.
I share Mustapha’s view with respect to linking to blogs with different political opinions.
Unfortunately, so far it hasn’t produced any significant advanced discourse as there seems to be a lack of appreciation for the state, and the rules within which politics should be played out and, more importantly, contained.
That is to say, that while we continue to push for the state as being the common denominator on which we can address our differences, those who “have a different view of things” (i.e. side with Hizballah), seem to be rejecting the state outright.
From that point dialogue becomes difficult.
:S
Hear hear.
Stef, Black,
I am not saying it’s an open and shut case, though I would say:
–Genuinely interested people can go to the blog aggregators to find all/most blogs.
–(Most? of ) The other side won’t link you because they consider you and your rules illegitimate. You won’t change their minds, and you are giving them a freebie.
–If you have to, why not pick a couple of more reasonable people and link them, instead of linking every frigging nut (I am not sure who your list is, but IMHO it does contain nuts).
I beg to differ JW,
Some of my most loyal readers are Moussa and Jamal (they log in at least 3 times a day) are comfortably on the other side of the political spectrum. Not all political opponents are hard core ideologues who won’t read your side of the story.
What I’m saying is that when the right amount of respect is present, both sides get an opportunity to influence each other in this large conversation.. (Although I confess: I’d never link to angry Arab and I’m seriously rethinking Sabbah.biz )
Ok Stef,
So we agree there’s a line somewhere, with Angry creep on one side and Jamal on the other.
[I used to link to Jamal until he dumped my blog, claiming not very convincingly IMO that I was not updating enough, Hi Jam.
My other 2 cents:
Remakze has Laz who is a good guy, though for the life of I have no clue what the other posters are talking about but it does not smell good.
Stopped looking at Kabobthing a while back, a dump in my book]
Mr. Salman is obviously living in another world! How can anyone think that the best solution for terrorism is actually to find a compromise with the terrorists!
NOT only that, but Mr. Salman thinks that “the army is in a war bigger than its capabilities”!!! Give me a break! IF we can’t trust the army to deal with some hundred terrorists in a refugee camp, then how on hell can we trust it in dealing with National Security issues??
And even if the Army’s capabilities are limitted at the time being, is it a wise step to advertise to the nation that its Army is useless in wars, and can function only as a “police force” ??!!
A propos Yakan’s comments, read this.
Sheikh Ali Youssef of the League of the Ulema of Palestine, which is
mediating in Nahr al-Bared, said that Fateh Islam has nothing to do with
al-Qaeda and Shahin Shahin is not Saudi, but a Palestinian.
Failasoof, what Salaman said is precisely what Syria and Hezbollah want and where Hezbollah’s propaganda is aimed. That’s not new at all nor is the fact that all of Syria’s allies have been trying since day one to prevent the Army from taking action.
JW
who is laz???? (no such person at remarks to my knowledge)
How can people read for idiots like Talal S.? I understand that Hizbullah, Mr. “Divine Victory”, and Syria want to blame every single problem in Lebanon to be the result of Sanyoura’s gov’t. But, I cannot understand the stupid followers. Are they just parrots repeating what they are told?
It is really sickening how low has the opposition become.
ramzi,
If I am not mistaken, m. on that blog is Lazarus (Laz) from the now shut down blog Letters Apart.
though he still posts at lebanon forum blog as lazarus no???? weird
Hello
I can’t be bothered with anything these days, but shrug. I just don’t have anything to say recently.
G’night