While FPM supporters insist that they are reasonable people, most of the readers of this blog associate Aounists with nutheads and demagogues (comments by Aoun supporters are hardly changing this perception).
This is why when May Akl, a foreign press coordinator for the FPM, writes an article in the Daily Star that centers around a Aounist worldview without tayyar.org’s sectarian firebreathing, it is worth reading and discussing.
Please take your time to read it (No subscription link)and let me know what you think of it.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
Mustapha,
Sure, I agree that May makes her points very eloquently, however it doesn’t excuse her from being subjective in painting General Aoun in a positive light:
But it doesn’t hide the fact that General Aoun is serving Iranian/Syrian interests, whether implicitly or explicitly.
He just want more power to the presidency. Just in case, he became a president!
Taif accord is a very important accord that was signed by all parties. Changing that might lead to canceling the accord. And canceling the accord might lead to 1975 again.
Amazingly enough, the hard core Christian leaders like Jaajaa and Joumayle never asked for more powers to he presidency.
You can always ask the question, is he trying to protect the Christian seat? Or, is he just trying to make a Syrian wish comes true by having some powers taken aways from the “NOT-Assad-obeying” government.
I never understood him and never will.
So, I say M14 should not make any concessions at all. They have to proceed with the election of Soulieman. And let Aoun/ HizbIran/ Etc. do their own tiny Syrian government. And knowing that no one will support them other than Syria and mother Iran.
I’ll try to blog this thing later, if I have time.
Suffice to say now: the piece is borderline incoherent, badly constructed and does not answer the main questions:
How is it that staunch “anti-Syrian” Aoun, who supposedly wants a strong prez, finding himself 100% on the side of Syria.
Is Syria going for strong Leb institutions and a strong prez? Is that believable?
What a complete retard that author is.
The point is that Aoun is short-circuiting the policitical process (if there is one).
All this can be debatedd and discussed in the Parliament (if there is still one).
The opposition is favoring chaos and using the situation to their advantage; i.e. to make quick political gains.
What this article fails to eloquently outline, is what is the political agenda of aoun, especially in light of his irreversible alliances with HA and syria.
I like how Tony is always so unpredictable and full of surprises
The other Tony and Josy raise an important question, however I don’t think their concerns are necessary in their place (even though they can be).
The fact that Aoun “who supposedly wants a strong prez” and the fact that he finds himself on the Side of Syria “serving them implicitly” are not necessarily contradictory.
The fact is our two lovely neighbors want opposing things from Lebanon, and no matter where his view is he will be somehow serving the interest of one or the other. That does not mean much.
Just because Aoun today is less of a problem to Syria than M14 does not mean he is serving Syrian interest instead of Lebanon’s, even though he could be, it is just not a given thing.
Just because Sanioura is less of a problem to Israel than hisbollah is does not mean at all that he is serving Israeli interest instead of Lebanon’s.
Just because Hariri was less of an enemy to Syria in 1995 than Aoun was does not mean that Hariri was serving Syria’s interests instead of Lebanon…
You get the drift I hope
TAC,
I’ll have to reread that lousy piece which goes on forever to say very little.
Aoun’s action and words have coincided with Syria’s on all issues for almost 2 years now. And he recently said that he NOW was closer to Syria than to the US.
The US got Syria out in 2005 and got the ball rolling on the tribunal and UN resolutions…
At the very least, Aoun is required to explain how and where he differs from Assad. He owes this to the majority in parliament and to the big chunk of Lebanese who are weary of Syria’s influence.
And how about calling for resignstion of the amn-3am Hezbo fuck along with others in light of monthly bombings??
Is it normal that his Hezbo minister frienda show up for work half time?
etc
IOW, Aoun needs to explain where he agrees but also where he differs from Syria. Any credit from his 80s anti-Syrian position is now dead except for the most rabid Aounist (take it from someone who supported Aoun’s position in the 1980s).
Well he keeps repeating in every occasion that he is with the international tribunal (pretending it was his idea), last occasion was on the eve of the election deadline.
There is also the issue of prisoners in Syrian jails, and the issue of mutual embassies…
He could be lying of course, but that’s how he explains where he differs from Syria, it is up to you to believe or not.
About the double standard of never asking his new friends in amn 3am to resign, I agree completely, it only shows his hypocrisy…
There is no way that General Aoun has switched to the Syrian camp without a price.
HizbIran wanted a Christian ally to be able to recover from the March 14 victory in making the Syrians withdraw.
There must be a price other than presidency that will make Aoun loyal to the opposition.
I say he is on the payroll from Iran. That is the only way he can be loyal. As for his followers, they are dummer than HizbIran followers. They will follow him regardless.
Aoun is determined to steal the title of Head Flip Flopper from Jumblat. He says the 2005 election was “illegitimate”, but claims “Christian support from this same election”( how sick is that?) You never know from day to day who he is supporting(one day it’s Suleiman, next day it’s not), or what he wants …… except at the end of the day and – He is only for Aoun as President, and any others are “unacceptable”. This man, and the party he heads, are becoming the joke of the entire world. Sad, because they used to be respected.
He “claims” to be “protecting” the prerogatives of the President – and yet, at the same time, he removes all of them – and claims them for himself. He demands to choose the Prime Minister, name the President, name the Army Commander, name the important Minister files, decide the Electoral Law …. and he does all of this is the name of “protecting the President’s prerogatives. He is even wanting to revise Taef to reduce the Christian representation from 50% to 33% and he say this is to “regain Christian rights”. What an idiot!
What a total joke this crazy old man is. How can anyone even follow him anymore? Have they all lost what ever education and intelligence they ever had? It is so much like the bizarre cults like Jim Jones (the Koolaid guys), and the the Branch Dividians in the USA that all committed suicide when their Guru instructed them to do so.
I can’t figure it out – did he sell out to the Syrians, the Iranians, is he totally controlled now by Hezbollah, or is he just a crazy old man who thinks he should be “King” of Lebanon? He has even put himself forward as the new “Patriarch” of Lebanon ….. and yet, there are some who still follow him. I’m betting they are keeping that a lot more “quiet” these days …. how embarrassing, to follow Aoun.
As to his motivation: it appears Aoun believes Hizbullah will succeed in its goal of ruling Lebanon; cooperation now will save his life and chance of ruling the Christians under the future Hizbullah theocracy.
Aoun, Aoun, Ah Aoun… Oxymoron was invented in his honor!
He is the Lebanese sacred version, of Kazafi, Saddam Hussain and Charles Taylor of Liberia.
We should all dance and pray the sky when we hear his name. Then all the FPM freaks will rejoice behind their insecurities and stupidities.
He is a perfect candidate to replace ill-dying Khameinei. I see him as a perfect Great Ayatollah ruling bunch of blood obsessed Persian freaks.
Every time someone like Fadi reminds me of how crazy and paranoid FPMers can be … commenters like LebanesePatriot, Ace, and sam how the whole country is the same.
So now he is blood obsessed dictator, on a payroll form Iran lovely conspiracy theories, almost as amusing as the FPM’s everyone in the world is against us.
Plus IMHO insulting the intelligence of his followers does you no good. Statistically they are as smart as you are or any M14 follower, they just see things from a different perspective.
Dear TAC,
The followers of Aoun are not the same as the followers of M14. Aoun has turned 180 degrees. And still his followers will follow him without questioning.
I support the Future Movement. I support it because I believe that the IT has to find the killers of Hariri and punish them. If at any moment in time, Saad Hariri will make a deal or change anything with respect to the IT, I will spit on him and not follow that movement again. So we are not the same.
I detest blind followers whoever they are….
LebanesePatriot we are all blind and we are all blind to our blindness.
Here is an example about your blindness.
In the midst on the Cedar revolution Saad Hariri made a deal with Berry and re-elected him as head of parliament (or maybe elected him without making any deal ie did not get anything political in return, i don’t know).
Most of our problems regarding the IT since them are a direct consequence of this re-election.
the fact is you are willing to give Hariri some slack because you support him, but you are not willing to give Aoun any because you don’t follow him.
Which is fine, just don’t fool yourself by saying “If at any moment in time, Saad Hariri will make a deal or change anything with respect to the IT, I will spit on him and not follow that movement again”.
When that deal happened (the berry re-election) , you said to yourself “he made a mistake and I forgive him because I believe he wants what is best for Lebanon” and you KEPT following him, regardless of how disastrous berry’s re-election was for the IT.
Were you blind to that deal/move he made? Or did you see it but decided to ignore it?
TAC,
I agree with you. Some mistakes have happened. But it is not a 180 degree turn.
M14 did many mistakes, some of which are: Berri re-election, La77ouss staying in the presidency, giving M8 some concessions, etc. But, the main reason for M14 existence is the Cedars revolution and the IT. If any of that is compromised, I will spit on whoever has done it. Mark my word!
Being blind to our leaders is something that is related to our “Football theory” issue. We are with our team regardless. I understand that. But…, being with your team is one thing and being with your team regardless of the contradictions that they make, is something else. I expect that from uneducated/ignorant people.
I am an educated man. And, I know that many highly educated people were the followers of Aoun when he was in France. When I see that they are going to Tayyar.org to see what they should be believing in, that is too much.
I hope I am clear with my point. And I understand your point TAC. And I know that our society is based on tribal feelings.
In North America, some people are with the right wing and some are with the left wing. The parties might change some of their principles. But you cannot see a right wing party voting towards gay marriage. Right wing are conservative in general. This is what you expect to see in your political party.
We just have to agree to disagree.
I just believe you are and will always be giving M14 more slack. I think, there will never be a day when you “see” that M14 did a 180 turn, and you will always think that if that day comes you will change. But of course I can be wrong, what the hell do I know about you.
In my opinion, the same things applied to Aoun are considered 180 deg turn but applied to M14 are considered “some mistakes”
For example, when Aoun wants to change the constitution, to elect an army general who was appointed by Syria and who tried to defend Syria to make them look innocent of the event DURING the nahr el bared war, we will surely conclude he is serving Syrian interests and he made a 180 turn.
But when M14 want to change the constitution (after saying they would never accept that) to elect a general (after saying they don’t want army men in the presidency) who explicitly said he known Syria is not backing Fath el Islam (after M14 insisted Syria was behind them), we start to rationalize and give them argument: yes but Suleiman could have behaved much worse during 2005 demonstrations… yes but there is not much else M14 can do … yes but he is a decent man…
Or what if Aoun says: “We will never say good bye syria we will only say till we meet again.” We’d all be up and screaming that Aoun the 180 deg man wants Syria back in Lebanon again.
But when a Future member says those same words, they are just a figure of speech and don’t mean much.
I have no problem with any of that, I just notice it as an observer. When the the Aounists do the exact same thing with Aoun I just can’t bring myself to blame them anymore than I blame any M14 supporter.
Then Fadi USA joins the conversation and I find myself blaming them more
Wait for the publication of “The Little Orange Book”. Words to live by and be killed for disobeying; like chairman Mao’s Red and Kaddafi’s Green.
I wanted to see change in our Lebanese politics, and yet the truth is harsh: we are going to postpone our dreams forever because we want to preserve ‘national unity’ (a.k.a Hizbullah and FPM will wage a war in Lebanon)
Am I the only person to think it is so unfair?
What I don’t understand is the process of ‘micromanaging’ people’s minds. You know? Like a mathematical equation where a single sign change will lead to a totally different solution, and someone keeps changing that sign every now and then.
Am I the only one who feels like that when hearing an FPMer or a Hizbullah supporter?
This smart article proves that Hell is paved with good intentions. I am not sure about Aoun, but the people around him are providing him with a lot of paving material.