The Lebanese President’s Outrageous Speech

By: Jean Aziz

Al-Akhbar, Friday, August 2, 2013

It's hard to know where to begin commenting on Lebanese President Michel Suleiman's Armed Forces Day speech, in which he decided to unleash a broadside against the Resistance.

Everything in Suleiman's speech - the timing, content, tone, and background - was puzzling to say the least.
At the heart of the president's speech was not just a declaration of war on Hizbullah, but a call to place all weapons under the personal command of none other than Suleiman himself.
The justifications are the same high-sounding words that have been repeatedly dug up over the years to be used against the Resistance, like security, sovereignty, dignity, rights, terrorism, trust, perseverance, and democracy.

All these words and many more were crammed into the president's 1,500-word speech, in effect to say that it is time to announce communique number one, declaring that the time has come for me to rule.
How did this all come about? The person who wrote the speech probably thought along these lines: First, the West has made the decision to isolate the Resistance, which was recently turned from words into action by the EU.

Second, the Arabs are jumping over one another to help Hizbullah's enemies and rid them of this scourge, believing it's the ideal moment to implement their plan against the Resistance.
Third, Syria is too busy with its problems to lend its support. Even if the crisis there eases to some extent, it will be a long time before it is able to play any kind of role in Lebanon again.

Fourth, Michel Aoun is Hizbullah's ally, with growing differences between them that can be turned into a much deeper dispute, while commander of the army Gen. Jean Qahwaji is now beholden to the whims of a minister after his term extension.
And so, the circumstances are ideal to take charge: No longer will any force be allowed to stand above the army, which in turn must answer to the president to prevent any vacuum at the top.

No mention was made of the myriad social problems facing ordinary citizens due to reckless corruption at all levels of government.
This is the gist of Suleiman's speech. He inflated the military to a level above all other state institutions and then reminded us of paragraph 49 of the constitution, which says that the president of the republic is the high commander of the armed forces.

As for the more profound problems facing the country's political system, there was no mention of them. The president forgot, for example, he was named commander of the army by a Syrian officer, and later became president - in violation of the constitution - with the consent of foreign capitals.
No mention was made of the myriad social problems facing ordinary citizens due to reckless corruption at all levels of government.

One only wishes that this very same speech was made by the commander of the army, not on 1 August 2013, but much earlier, like 7 or 9 August 2001, when we were protesting Syrian rule in Lebanon - he would have saved us a lot of trouble.