Seniora, Sleiman React Differently to Winograd Report.
It is worth comparing the reactions of the hopeful president with that of the sitting Prime Minister to the Winograd report.
A victory to some… (AFP)
The Winograd report gave Mr. Sleiman an excellent excuse to suck up to Hezbollah. He told Assafir:
“[the report] makes us, as a military institution, stress on the joint victory of the resistance and the Lebanese army during the 2006 July War that led to the defeat of the enemy,” Sleiman said.”
He actually said that with a straight face. Perhaps he forgot that the Lebanese army didn’t shoot one bullet at the Israelis and instead kept a low profile to avoid being targeted. Or maybe he forgot that the mantra that “the army and the resistance won the war hand in hand” was simply a face-saving device for Hezbollah to explain why the army took over policing the south after the war.
But then again, perhaps all of this is just another brilliant ploy by Mr. Sleiman to regain Hezbollah’s favor -and save them face-, while keeping the army’s zero-tolerance strategy towards troublesome street demonstrators.
A more honest reaction to the report came from Mr. Seniora, who expresses important misgivings about the report:
“The report did not include anything on the cluster bombs used by the Israeli army or the part of Security Council Resolution 1701 laying responsibility on Israel and the international community to implement Resolution 425 on restoring Shebaa farms to Lebanon through the United Nations,”
“In spite of noting the Israeli army’s failure to achieve its objectives, the report calls on Israel to prepare itself for coming wars, as if it hasn’t learned anything from its failed aggression on Lebanon,”
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Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.
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Lebanon is lost because its leaders/thinkers/people are hopeless idiots. Both responses above, as well as Hezbo’s SUCK.
Suleiman is kissing ass and upholding the very ideology that brought disaster since 1967.
Saniora is a despicable fuck, wanting action on Gaza and wanting Israel to learn lessons. Where is his action on Lebanon? What has he learned from the 2006 war? Has his gvmnt protected the country and its institutions?
The basic problem is the same: keep saying Palestine/Zionism/Muqawamah and you will keep eating shit for the foreseeable future (with no electricity and no security and high food prices, yes you morons, there IS a connection).
Is there a similar report from Hezb’allah, analysing mistakes made and lessons learned?
The basic problem is the same: keep saying Palestine/Zionism/Muqawamah and you will keep eating shit
No Lebanese appears to be imaginative enough, or brave enough, to break out of this by boldly asserting that just being accused of being pro-American or even pro-Zionist is better than kow-towing to tyranny. I guess the life of powerlessness and domination is just too sweet to risk seeking a life of liberty, at least while staying in the same country.
I mirror Josey Wales’ sentiment. Totally lost cause.
It’s when I read shit like the above statements that I completely give up on Lebanon. Why is Suleiman kissing the asses of Hezballah now? Two days after they shot at his men and have been doing their best to antagonize the Army and smear Suleiman. Not that I’m a big Suleiman fan, but why on earth is it in this country that everyone is so freaking afraid of Hezballah? They smear everyone and yet the very people they smear come back and kiss their asses the next day. They call Saniora an Israeli agent, he comes back and praises and defends the “Resistance” the next day. Same thing here with Suleiman.
Here’s a hint, guys: Hezballah is not pulling its punches. It’s going all out when it comes to attacking you guys. Why do you still continue to defend them and praise them? For once I’d like to hear someone call out Hassan Nassrallah and his goons the way THEY call out the M14 folks. I would’ve liked Suleiman to come out and say “You know what, Hassan-baba? You didn’t win a divine victory. You provoqued the Israelis by kidnapping their soldiers, and so they came and bombed us back to the stone age, demolished our airport, roads and bridges, and killed 1200 of our people. And make no mistake about it, the Israelis were holding back. If they had wanted to wipe us off the map, they probably could’ve done it. So no, this was not a divine victory. Now shut the fuck up and go back into your hole!”
That’s what I’d like to hear. Not this drivel I just read this morning.
Don, no way dude – get real :)
Hezb doesn’t make mistakes, only “divine moves”, just like a software doesn’t have bugs, only features.
As an Israeli who wish good for Lebanon all I can say is that if this is a victory for Lebanon then I wish Million victories like that on all the enemies of Lebanon.
Also it is very strange that of all the Arab countries only poor, small, oil-less Lebanon is allowed to have so many great victories [not that I want war] but still if it is so easy to obtain such glorious victories why others, beside the Palestinians and the Lebanese, are not trying get few victories too.
As for your PM I would tell him that I wish that the trials of the people who are murdering his friends would have been as swift and as public as the Vinograd Commision. But he does not want to behave like a Zionist, does he?
And in general I would say that people on both sides should not ever ask for another round.
Why is it that the “Zionist” Israeli commenting here actually makes more sense than most of the Lebanese nincompoops?
Suleiman is trying to get himself elected people. He is trying to show that he is impartial and can accomodate everyone. I personally think that he should play his role as army chief for now which is more urgent than trying to get too comfy with HA and their masters. An army chief whose country is on the brink of chaos should be more interested in keeping order and making sure the army is strong and united.
My sympathies are with all rational Lebanese like the ones here who have their bullshit detectors on. Fanatics, fools and cowards rule your country and continue to offer it up as a sacrificial lamb. Unfortunately playing the odds and hoping not to be one of the offerings seems all that can be done by the average citizen barring some kind of miracle.
. Unfortunately playing the odds and hoping not to be one of the offerings seems all that can be done by the average citizen
Wrong. The hope of the average citizen is the average citizen. That is the secret dictators don’t want people to remember. That’s how the Marcoses and Italian princes of this world were overthrown: Give them a definite hope for change, then mobilize the people en masse on the streets. It works, and certainly Hizb is afraid of it – doubtless one of their purposes of their continued occupation of downtown Beirut is an attempt to pre-empt such a possibility.
The zionist Israeli commenters don’t make more sense, you’re just more taken in by them. No one but you believe their tripe. You’re probably the same person.
Yalla! – please explain how you arrived at your judgments, because if you can’t, why should anyone agree with them rather than the opposite?
Don Cox @ 2,
“Is there a similar report from Hezb’allah, analysing mistakes made and lessons learned?”
There may be no report but I hope they learned.
The fact of the matter is, there was no winner.
The Israelis were stupid, arrogant and plain wrong.
Hizballah were stupid, arrogant and plain wrong.
1200 Lebanese died. Many more could have. Our infrastructure was destroyed. And the sectarian aftermath couldn’t be any more dire.
169 Israelis died, not to count the countless injured, who happened to be a largely disproportionate Israeli-Arab demographic….or perhaps we forgot that Hassan’s missiles could only reach the mainly Israeli-Arab population centres.
When will we realize, once and for all, WE ALL LOST. The Israelis just lost less.
Reading reports like this just forces you to respect Hizballah. I really wish the other Lebanese parties were half as dedicated to their cause as these people are. Its sad that those who believe in the wrong cause are willing to die and destroy everything for it, and those who believe in the right ones are not willing to do anything about it beyond empty words. They have empty slogans that they fiercely pursue, we have “filled-up” slogans, that we will never pursue.
Sleiman will always suck up to everyone, I really hope this guy doesn’t get elected; I want to smash some “innocent Syrians” in that fucking traitor’s face. Siniora, will always try to give the impression of being an all-nice loving father of Arab children. (As if these children haven’t always been sons of gypsy whores that would sell their families for a rifle).
We on the other hand, i.e. the normal people, are by far the worst. We blog, and comment, and read, and blog, and then we blog again, but more angrily this time around.
Come on! Like Siniora or Sleiman or anyone else for that matter, we all know the source of the problem, and we’re all not doing anything about it. Let’s come down from the comfy chair we’re sitting on, and for once admit that we’re not much better than those who rule. The “moderate politicians” think they have no power to face Hizbistan, and we think we have no power to face these politicians.
Seniora: “The report did not include anything on the cluster bombs used by the Israeli army”
Winograd: “Israel must consider whether it wants to consider using cluster bombs in the future, because its current manner of employing them does not conform to international law… The cluster bomb is inaccurate, it consists of bomblets that are dispersed over a large area, and some of the bomblets do not explode [on impact] and can cause damage for a long period afterward”
Yallah…..Nice to see you used some sort of logic and rational thinking to your comment. Oh no, wait, you didn’t. Idiot.
Agreed with Josey and Bad V.
Sleiman is sucking, but for what? And Siniora forgot that during the early days of the war, he sided with Hezb, which gave Israel cause to bomb the rest of Lebanon in order to teach us.
The reality is that Hezb’s cause is a lost one. Peace in Lebanon is more important than belligerance with Israel.
Hezb’s days are numbered. Israel will not make the same mistake again if they strike them. This time, they’ll be really on their own.
So much for naming names….Courtesy of Naharnet:
Army Warns: Attacking Soldiers Serves Israel’s Interests, Confuses Investigation
The Army Command on Saturday cautioned that attacks targeting soldiers in Beirut and its suburbs deal a blow to security and stability and serve interests of the Israeli enemy.
Still hiding behind the dumb “Zionist enemy” nonesense. These people are never going to grow up, and never going to shed that monkey of their back. As long as we insist on blaming every damn thing on the Israelis, there simply is no hope for this godforsaken country.
Would it have been so hard to actually call Syria an enemy too? Or say attacking the army serves Syria’s interests? Or the interests of Hezbollah? Why are we SO freaking afraid to name LEBANESE names or Arab names? Are people that far in denial that they can’t recognize that the Arab world and Lebanon have their own failings? To hear these idiots speak, we are bloody perfect. We’ve NEVER done anything wrong. It’s ALWAYS the Israelis. I’m tired of it. Israel has done it’s fair share of damage and destruction in Lebanon, but SO HAVE THE LEBANESE, SO HAVE THE SYRIANS, SO HAVE THE PALESTINIANS.
Re BV and the recent army warning idiocy,
Thats’ exactly what I am talking about in comment #1 above:
Yelling Israel/Zionism is sheer stupidity and will NOT solve your economic nor political problems, nor will it solve your numerous investigations you bums.
Maybe, just maybe, while our idiot leaders are (supposedly) watching the Zionists someone else is killing them and fomenting trouble (DUH).
Siniora is a very smart man.
Suleiman probably too, but he is perhaps trying to cool down the latest tensions between the shiite community and the army.
We don’t know how this community will react to the murder of some demonstrators. They seems to have been shot by soldiers (who probably were highly provoked… but oh well…)
Hezbollah is suggesting to jail Samir Geagea because some shiites and soldiers clashed on black Sunday. Very funny.
Today’s news reports the Army arrested a bunch of army troops, as part of the investigation, as well as a bunch of civilians. Hezbollah and Amal were of course quick to applaud the arrest of the army troops (but said nothing about the arrest of the rioters who started this whole thing).
The more I read about this, the more it is clear that the army was provoked:
+”The reports quoted unidentified informed sources as saying Ahmed Hamzi, an AMAL official who was the first victim of the Jan. 27 riots, was shot in the back with an AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle bullet, a weapon that is not used by the Lebanese Army force deployed in the area.”
So that was an assassination, basically.
+”The reports said victims, other than Hamzi, were hit after escalation of the protests into a confrontation with the Army, which included attacking soldiers and attempting to strip them of their weapons.”
I dunno about you, but i think when rioters start targeting the army and attempting to strip them of their weapons, I’d expect the Army to fight back and fire at the aggressors.
+”The reports quoted sources as saying the investigation dropped the probability of targeting army troops and rioters with sniper fire by a third party, especially from the adjacent Christian district of Ein Rummaneh.
No snipers were positioned on rooftops during the confrontation, the reports said, noting that army troops had deployed on the roofs of two to three buildings overlooking the confrontation grounds.”
All this makes it pretty damn clear who started this whole incident. And I sure hope that the investigation does more than punish a bunch of troops for defending themselves.
You wanna name names? Call out the agitators, call out their masters in Dahieh, and have them arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And let’s not blame Israel for this one, eh chums?