OMG. Can you believe Samir Geagea’s running for president?
The horror. The disgrace. The shame. Let us go turn in our passports (worthless as they are) right here, right now.
Samir Geagea’s nomination for president was met with an onslaught of histrionics that the Lebanese political scene hadn’t seen in a very long time.
We had photoshopped Israeli posters.
People acting like Civil War know-it-alls when they, in fact, know nothing at all. Granted, this happens all the time but it always finds its way to surface whenever Geagea does something. As a future medical doctor, I shall dub it Geageatis.
Twitter hashtags with every combination imaginable to attack Geagea’s judicial records.
Newspaper editors freaking out like pregnant teenager girls who hail from the Bible Belt.
And so and so forth.
You know what’s in common between all of the aforementioned reactions? They reflect the well-rooted hypocrisy of people who have perfected double standards. And isn’t that what Lebanon is all about?
Samir Geagea is a war criminal. Samir Geagea has a tarnished history. Samir Geagea went to jail. Samir Geagea is sectarian. Samir Geagea is this and that.
But the fact of the matter is that those same people digging up Geagea’s past also turn the blindest of eyes to the past of their favorite politician and warlord and person who hasn’t even gotten a brevet degree yet but is practicing politics anyway.
They are the same people who chant their politician’s name off rooftops whenever he has an aired speech. They are the people who empty riffles to celebrate such speeches, regardless of the passerby who might get hit by their stray bullet.
They are the same people who defend war criminals whenever those war criminals serve their purpose. They are the people who have been defending Bashar el Assad for the past three years as he worked his way through a six digit body count.
They are also the same people who would put forth anything championed by Lebanese parties like Hezbollah who, lately, have only been dabbling in the war mindset that we supposedly don’t want for our country through people like Geagea. Or is war in the eye in the beholder?
They are the same people who proclaim secularism as a headline to sound cool and modern but fall back to their old sectarian habits whenever push comes to shove.
Can you envision a Lebanese future where someone like Samir Geagea is president? Can you even fathom how dissociative that is from the reality of today’s Lebanon? You know, the Lebanon where Tripoli was in a state of war up until last week but no one cared; the Lebanon where everyone is getting armed again; the Lebanon where a government took a year to be formed and is basically stillborn even now; the Lebanon where there’s no economy, no hope and no prospects for a future; the Lebanon that is still talking about Samir Geagea and the other warlords he played with way back when even today.
Yes, in such a Lebanon, someone like Samir Geagea and every single other politician being proclaimed as the next president wouldn’t make the natural selection for the presidency.
No, I don’t think Samir Geagea is the best possible candidate to become the next Lebanese president.
No, I don’t think him getting nominated for that position, however trivial such a thing actually is in Lebanese politics, was the right move.
I don’t even get why everyone is entering our own version of Game of Thrones for the Baabda Chair when they all agree that it’s borderline worthless. Perhaps it’s comfortable for gluteal muscles?
I don’t have a say in who becomes president anyway and neither does anyone else including those who have been throwing bitch fits over the past few days, but I have to say it has been quite entertaining to see the borderline mania that has overtaken those people. Who knew Lebanese politics can elicit this much excitement still?
The reasons I don’t think Geagea should be president is simply because he is part of the current perpetuation of a status quo that I cannot I agree with. It’s because him as president will perpetuate this status quo for six years to come and I don’t think our country can handle such a thing anymore. It’s because I think it’s high time other people take up a position of power to challenge the current system, be it within their own sects or within the broader framework of Lebanese politics.
The same reasons why I don’t think Geagea should be president also follow to Aoun, Frangieh and Gemayel, which are being called around as the Maronite Four. Perhaps you should use your future as an argument instead of digging up pasts no one wants uncovered and instead of bashing the part of the civil war class you don’t agree with while secretly swooning over the part you do agree with.
I’ll give you this, though, the craziness is comical.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
His past is a very valid reason for why he shouldn’t be president. Nobody with that many skeletons in their closet should be in politics, much less running for president whatever that means in Lebanon. In the entire article, there is not one proper justification for taking the position you do. Just sarcastic comments and stereotyping everyone who disagrees with you.
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He didn’t say his history isn’t a valid reason, he said the history being used against him is the same history of the same politicians the people attacking him actually support. Did you even read?
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Yes I did. A murderer calling accusing another of being a murderer doesn’t make either any less guilty, nor does it make the first murderer’s argument any less valid. The last thing Lebanon needs is rhetorical arguments from dissenters, God knows we have enough of those from politiicians already.
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What Amalia said.
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You repeat “They are the same people” over and over again? Who are these people you’re talking about? I’ve seen countless people who oppose him and all the other things you’re claiming “they” represent
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They are the likes of Ibrahim el Amin and other politically charged people who bash him for the same reasons they support the politician they do.
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I don’t deny that they exist. I’m sure there’s plenty of them. But we shouldn’t go as far as say “they are the same people” as though there isn’t a very valid reason to oppose a former warlord to be our president.
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I didn’t say there was no valid reason. I said the reason is rendered valid when you support another warlord for president, which is specific to the “same people” I’m addressing here.
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Gemayel is weak and fake, had his chance.
Frangieh is not educated enough, we need a president who does not need translation in front of the French and American presidents, and is a known pet to the worst dictatorship in history.
Aoun is a f*cking asshole who always put himself first and has brought himself to a new level of political prostitution.
Geagea has blood on his hands, but always stood for his own beliefs against the Palestinian and Syrian predators, and at least went to jail in horrific conditions for 11 years, in which he evolved and changed as a person.
Just needed to write down some thoughts.
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Antoine ya raytak khreet wala 7keet
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Great piece
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Not sure whether I should comment on this topic I know too little about. But isn’t Michel Aoun way too old to be president? He’ll likely die or be kept alive in some high-class nursery home before a presidential term. If not, what are you going to do with a senile president? At least Samir Geagea is like my father’s age, such as too many other men in politics…
Also, Elie Fares for President.
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Hey dude how about you do some daily newspaper reading and then come talk about samir geagea and lebanese politics. You just made me laugh my ass off reading this piece of shit article that you wrote. Go know who samir geagea is by reading some history not by taking lebanese retards’ opinion. Well if you do know who samir geagea is; you would have known that if it wasnt for him none of the christians in lebanon today would be present. You think hes a warlord, well guess what, he was the first ‘ warlord ‘ to give up his militia’s weapons at a shot of peace in lebanon. He was the only ‘warlord’ that got imprisoned for the cases that he was proved innocent for, just to stay opposing the syrian regime, the exact regime which devasted lebanon for 15 years. The great thing is, after 11 years of torture, he’s still perfectly sane and the wisest lebanese politician. Also, samir geagea’s the only past ‘warlord’ that apologized for all his actions at war. Finally, i would like to remind you that samir geagea has a reputation of sticking to his word no matter what (Thats why hezbollah’s afraid of him). So if you have read samir geagea’s presidential program, which depicts the lebanon we dream off, i dont think he’ll hesitate to apply it 100%. What do you think off him now?!
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Le passe – temps favori, du Premier Minstre Mr. Fouad Seniora séquestration des Biens.
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C’est un pur plaisir de réussir ce que les gens te croient incapable de le faire.
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