The Guardians of the Cedars Party issued the following weekly communiqué:
The Army is Always Right
The conspiracy against Lebanon continues in the same pattern it started with in 1975 when the Syrian regime decided to pounce on Lebanon according to a 2-part plan: The first consisted in undermining the constitutional institutions using Syria’s Palestinian allies, and the second consisted in undermining the military institution which stood as the last obstacle in the way of its expansionist ambitions. So it was, and the Syrian regime got what it wanted.
Today, like yesterday, the same conspiracy repeats itself. The maestro is always the Syrian regime, except that the names have changed and so have the identity of the allies. After successfully passing the first hurdle of disabling the presidency of the republic and the two legislative and executive powers, it now has moved to the second phase, which explains the vicious campaign against the military institution, at times with assassinations and at other times through slander and defamation campaigns whose frequency increases by the day.
The dangerous thing is that the government, instead of standing forcefully against the Syrian plan, it has adopted a defeatist attitude, both towards the regime in Damascus and its local allies. It surrenders to their demands with blatant cowardice, offering concession after another until the grassroots March 14 revolution has been lost and with it the dreams of the Lebanese for change.
The most dangerous of these concessions is the government’s approval to subject the army to a judicial investigation in the recent incidents of Shiah-St. Michael, as if this additional concession will satisfy the conspirators and quench their thirst for more concessions.
This investigation has caused as much harm to the army as the harm caused by the insolent assailants against it. It has reflected negatively on the morale of the entire military institution and allowed the conspirators to sow doubt into its credibility and its customary discipline. It contributed to diminish its prestige, particularly after the big halo it earned domestically and internationally following its magnificent victory in Nahr Al-Bared.
If accountability is inevitable, it must begin with the political class which is directly responsible for the state of collapse the country and its institutions find themselves in, and not with the army which undertakes every day to clean up the accumulating malignancies left behind by the politicians over decades.
And if the owners of the private protectorates and parallel armies fear the growth of the army’s power and are acting to weaken it and distort its halo, what interest does the government have in cajoling them and trying to please them at the expense of the army’s interests and morale?
The people’s choice is clear. They refuse every state that is not their own legitimate state, and every army that is not their own national army. They also refuse that the army becomes the scapegoat, paying with its flesh and blood and morale the price for the politicians’ mistakes, disputes and personal ambitions. The people demand that the military institution be given the broadest authorities and fullest confidence, away from the accountability and the filth of the politics, particularly during these critical circumstances, so that it is able to stand up to the ongoing conspiracy and overcome the conspirators, on the basis that the army is always right.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz