The only way to prevent an all out outbreak of violence in Tripoli is for the army to adopt a zero tolerance approach.
Families fleeing the violence hiding in Tripoli public school
There is already talk in Tripoli that the army cannot to be trusted with protecting the citizens, and that if you want to protect your family, you have to put some weapons in your house. That is a very dangerous line of thinking that is becoming more and more entrenched in the North.
So far, the army’s way of dealing with Lebanon’s warring factions has been to avoid angering any one side at any cost. But there’s another way, and that is to provoke all sides equally by confiscating all weapons and raiding the sources of all sniper fire.
If you look at this video, you see the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation interviewing three men, blatantly unmasked while showcasing their automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenade, brazenly claiming to be defending themselves. If the LBC can reach those men, there is no excuse for the army not to round them up and punish them severely to serve an example.
When bullets and rockets are doing the talking, the army’s job is to protect the unarmed children and the elderly, not to cover politicians’ behind.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
Agreed. But how?
An army’s real job is to kill people and break things. One can hardly expect them to make another Hama…
Amazing to see the Army M117 passing with indifference by the militiamen while they are shooting. I don’t care if they are Sunnis or Alawis, the army should intervene before it is too late!
What is the deal the was made after the Mar Michael events? The Army stays watching that the civil war erupt?
Mr. Sleiman knows the answer and if he’s a reliable President, he should stop that chaos!
Mr. Sleiman can force all the parties to do so. Especially in the North, a zone where Hizballah has no pretext about Israeli danger to hide arms etc.
Hahahaha, now you want Sleiman to put an end to this, yeah right!!!
25 years of fanatic islamization of Tripoli led to what we are seing now. Selling orange juice to buy an RPG, and use schools as shelters, hahahaha. Most of the kids hiding in schools are setting foot for the first time in a classroom. Ya 3ich el 3arab!!!
what is more important, the army’s unity or civil peace? We’re always affraid to implement law and order becoz the army might split. So if ppl are getting killed and militias are thriving what the hell do we need a unified but nullified army for then????
The army role was cancelled in 1975 when those same people that you see today asking the army to intervene, opposed an armed intervention by the army against their palestinian(then)allies who just like hezbollah today, were running a state inside the state.
There is no army in Lebanon unless it’s ruled by a dictator and not a “unity” government.
Ralf, ana Lebneneh 3arabi w meslem, w toz 3ala el mt3asbeen metalk! TFEH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wake up guys. The army cannot do anything, neither internaly against HA nor externally against Israel. It will only play a minor role until a faction decides to enguf it more deeply and then sadly, it will split. I really don’t see any other outcome on the long run.
Effectively, there is no army.
It does not have a unified command anymore, and as the events of may showed, it is divided, each officer showing allegiance to their own community.
We’re once again on the brink of another armed conflict and once again events are quickly getting out of our control….sadly we have not learned anything after all these years of war and occupation.
What’s happening in the sunni stronghold Tripoli is the result of stupid acts of the so called Majority,starting with giving the the licence to Hizbu Tahrir by the stupid previous prime minister Fatfat,in a plan to stop the chia expension.
Hizbu tahrir is”is a internationalist Sunni, anti-nationalist, pan-Islamist vanguard[2] political party whose goal is to unite all Muslim countries in a unitary Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law and headed by an elected head of state (caliph).[3]”
The weapons used in Tripoli,are far more expensive than any of the people using them can afford.
The army and the interior forces stand watching while people with uncovered faces begin shooting each others.While on the other side of Tripoli they(the army and the interior forces)never tier from harrassing young girls and calling them names in their new Dodge cars,and make a big deal if few kids gathered around Mc Donalds…..
That’s the country the Cedar Revolution promised us….
And yes as Ralph said,ya 3ich l 3arab….
And unlike Kheireddine said,i’m LEBANESE,not arab,nor muslim…..
Ado and Ralf since u so vehemently condemn those who”were allied” to the palestiniansin 75 why do u support those who “are allied today” with hizz and have voted for them. Next to external viewer the army indeed can do a lot and has done if u look at the 80s when it imposed its will in beirut and dahieh using force against the reticent militias, 84 I think if memory serves me right. they used force and we stayed for days in shelters but in the end the army prevailed. Nothing prevents it from happening now except a political decision. And for the record to all those posting silly comments abt M14 or sunnis indirectly as in the ones allied to the PLO in 75, if yr so critical of them, dont turn a blind eye on those who’re repeating this disaster in 08.
ado & ralf, if you want to talk about extremism and wrong “allies” don’t use the civil war as a reference because if we start digging through the past, we can make everyone embarrassed especially the right wing, so if i am you, i’ll loss the superiority complex and step down of the high ground.
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Don’t put me in the same box as Ado please, I have nothing to do with his ideas or his comments nor his paranoia.And no Dania, I sure don’t support those who are allied today with hezb nor support syrias proxy (such as Rafic Hariri 5 years ago I remind you), but don’t turn a blind eye either on what Tripoli is today, a college of fanatism where the most moderate of these fanatics is as obtus as our friend here Kharadin!!! (and thats to be very polite). Look at those beautiful warrior specimen that goes on TV with a machine gun, rpg’s… talk about Allah and shout Sunni fanatic slogans, whats the difference between them and the hizb scum and their willayat al faqih??? I want to use the civil war as a reference, and I don’t give a shit Rollen if you “embarass” me, coz i’m not from this right wing that you feel so inferior too. Sunnis and Druze will reallign with the palestinian cause and christians will reallign with israelis and americans. All this cedar revolution is nothing but a mascarade, M14 leaders highjacked it from the people who really wanted some change, and now they burried it and exchanged their principles just to keep a seat. Look at your friend Jumblatt how in a second changed his mind, whats the difference between him and Aoun? Same crap from a different Ahole. Now, he wants to remind us of the palestinian cause and forgets the murderers of hariri by hugging a murderer of civilians and kids.
I’m keeping the highground Rollen, because I keep criticising myself first and don’t get blinded by words or actions that in truth veil the true nature of most of the sunni in Tripoli (Keiredin included). Stop the BS, Lebanon is a lost cause,and your leaders, all of them, are but the true faces of the lebanese people, fake and evil!
Ralf,
hahaha… lets put thing in prospective first, unlike the sheep in lebanon, i dont have/follow an owner, religion nor a party and i don’t feel inferior to the delusional creeps in the right.
ado’s pathetic ad hominem emotional biased tin-foil hat argument doesn’t touch me and reflects the FPM paranoia.
These people who you see on tv (or youtube) are bunch of scared amateurs and believe that they can protect there city armed with rusty ww2 weapons and religious slogans, I feel sorry than fear towards that bunch.
You talk about fanticising the north for decades but you ignore what caused this phenomena in the first place that doesnt occur in west beirut nor bekaa (i lived in bekaa’, and trust me they’re far from religious), its poverty and neglect, tripoli is the home of the poorest neighborhoods in lebanon and the result of decades of governments neglect.
I may misunderstood you and placed you and ado in the same box.
Shit, hold that tear for me Rollen. Poverty, government neglect… tse tse tse haram, haram. here’s five bucks for the schools in tripoli. oops, one of these five bucks went to fanatic islamic schools, another $ for buying an RPG and the $3 remaining went to kheireddin’s grandpa’s pocket.
your funny, you should be a clown