The Guardians of the Cedars Party issued the following weekly communiqué:
The army should not be entangled in the maze and mud of domestic politics, nor should it be burdened with the failures, divisions and perennial disputes of the politicians. If the country is in this horrifying situation, the responsibility is entirely with the political establishment and the fatal mistakes they have accumulated for decades, and against which we have warned them and cautioned them repeatedly, but unfortunately to no avail.
The army in its current national structure can only be a force of separation when the matter at hand pertains to internal conflicts between domestic parties, and it should not be used to support one party against another as some wish. The wise and sober position taken by the army leadership with respect to the latest events is what allowed the troops to deploy quickly throughout the hot spots in the country, and enabled them to stop the strife in its tracks, thus preventing it from escalating and spreading to the remaining regions as was planned for it. But when the conflict is between Lebanon and an outside danger, then the army turns into a deterrent force that uses all its fighting capabilities to stem the danger and ward it off, which is precisely what it did in Nahr el-Bared and earned the admiration of the world for its priceless courage and sacrifice.
And if the so-called “Hezbollah” has been able to build its own private state and its own private army as we saw, the fault is not with the Lebanese army. It is with the extremely stupid, short-sighted, criminal and worthless political gang that offered “Hezbollah” all manner of support and sustenance for more than a quarter of a century.
Therefore, the honorable Lebanese praise the army for its recent stance and consider what it has so far done is on point and wisdom itself. They consequently denounce the campaign of false accusations, slander and distrust that some have mounted against the army, and reiterate their position that the army remains the plank of salvation and the only hope in this overwhelming political darkness in which the country finds itself.
We also can only be grateful that the “Eastern” regions stayed out of this strife-conspiracy and we hope that the people in charge of those regions be of a level of awareness and responsibility not to be drawn into it and repeat the catastrophic experience of 1990. Any failure by them this time, God forbid, will have detrimental consequences to whatever remains of the “Christian community” as it used to be called. We therefore appeal to them to tone down the high pitch some of them use and replace it with a more realistic and rational tone that is consistent with the symbolism of the “Eastern regions” and the conciliatory role they must play between the communities of Lebanese society.
The nature of “Christian” distribution across the geography of Lebanon in the mixed villages and hamlets represents the living example of the historic role played by the Christians in the past, which is the role of arbiter between the various sects and denominations and not the role of a party. Will then our custodians of politics learn from the lessons of history and the examples of the past, or will foolishness remain in control of their minds? The days and weeks ahead will certainly provide the answer.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz