Tag Archives: Lebanese army

R.I.P Samer Hanna, Wissam Eid & Francois el Hajj

Dear Concerned Lebanese Citizen,

Were you this concerned when Samer Hanna got shot in his helicopter while flying over South Lebanon?

Were you this concerned when Wissam Eid and Francois el Hajj were blown up until there was nothing left of them to return to their grieving families?

Captain Wissam Eid

Dear Lebanese army,

Were you this feisty when you lost Samer Hanna, Wissam Eid & Francois el Hajj?

Were you this protective of your own when you lost those three men to three separate, equally-horrifying, assassinations?

General Francois el Hajj

Dear Lebanese political websites worried about the army,

Were you remotely concerned when your directing politicians stood in the home of one of them and defended his killers?

Were you remotely concerned with the army’s sake and all the martyrs that fell in Nahr el Bared when your allies proclaimed the camp a “red line?”

Lieutenant Samer Hanna

Dear Lebanese people hating on the army,

Where was this hate when you were begging for army protection when you were getting killed?

Where was this hate when you proclaimed the army as the only entity you want for your protection?

“Allah ye7me l jeish” 100%. Bass shou bta3mel bi 7ezbo? Shou bta3mel bel 3alam yalli ma bta3ref Allah?

Should the Lebanese Army Be Beyond Retribution?

To start this, I feel it is important to say that I respect the Lebanese army because many will feel, upon reading this, that I’m degrading our armed forces, which is not my intention.

The purpose of this post is to ask a few questions – the answers to those questions are not set in stone. They go back to your perspective. Some might feel the answer the questions posed are yes. Others will feel the answer is a no. Either way, it’s always healthy to have a debate.

When it comes to the Lebanese army, many put it on a pedestal. Whatever the army does, you can’t criticize it, you can’t comment on its work, you can’t talk about anything it does in a negative light. The argument? The army is already doing more than what’s required of it and you have no right to criticize.

But is the argument that the army is doing more than it should enough to explain any possible shortcomings?

For instance, when it comes to neutrality, the Lebanese army is praised for keeping a distance from everyone, as it should. For instance, when Kataeb students were getting beaten up in Downtown Beirut, the army stood by and watched. I think it should have interfered because these are the people it should be protecting. Many felt that remaining neutral is better.

However, soon after that downtown incident, students were protesting at a Lebanese university as a reply to a protest that went on a week earlier. The army was neutral for the first protest – it beat up the students during the second one. Now, should we remain silent about this or do we have the right to ask: what happened?

When it comes to the checkpoints, such as the Madfoun checkpoint, is it fair to say that we are civilians who don’t understand the importance of such checkpoints? Is it fair that we don’t get to criticize why some regions have such checkpoints and not others? Or should we just “suck it up” and not get a say at all?

Should we, as civilians, not be allowed to address some military men who abuse their power, if they exist, and who might be protected by the halo we throw around them?

Should the army’s triumphs protect it from any possible inquiry people might have about its other activities?

In any other country in the world, while the military is respected, people get the chance to constructively criticize. I say, who not in Lebanon too?

Dear Lebanese Army, What’s This Fuckery?

Every Lebanese (and non-Lebanese) who has been to the North has to pass by a Lebanese army checkpoint at the Madfoun bridge, known as the infamous Madfoun checkpoint.

We used to pass by that checkpoint every day, not caring about it since it wasn’t that problematic to through. But now, every single time you go through the checkpoint, you:

1) Get stuck in unbelievable traffic,

2) Solve a barricade puzzle with your car,

3) Take another driving test, which most Lebanese people undoubtedly need.

And why’s that? Because by the looks of it, the only spot where the Lebanese army decided to reinforce law is the Madfoun checkpoint, even removing the more necessary checkpoint outside Tripoli, which was set up after the Nahr El Bared incidence with the terrorist group of Fath Al Islam.

The new reinforcements include barricades placed left and right (and if they could, I’m sure they would have put some floating in the air) and road bumps that are as bumpy as you could get (they actually add these for a week then remove them because they could damage cars).

Why so? Are the people of Jbeil going to attack the people of Batroun? Or is Batroun the filthiest area of the country when it comes to crime?

I understand my state is the entry district to the North. But I can think of many other locations where such a checkpoint might be more beneficial to fight crime and would cost even less manpower, money and time. Besides, don’t you think a criminal would take the longer inside roads to North Lebanon, instead of a checkpoint that has been here for decades?

And for God’s sake, if you want to keep it, how about you open up the freaking side road that you keep for hotshot people so it doesn’t take me ten minutes to cross a fifty meter stretch of road?