Terror strikes Aley

First it was Christian Ashrafieh, then Sunni Verdun, and now came the turn of Druze Aley. An explosion in the resort village of Aley caused extensive damage to shops and residences. The bomb was planted in an area full of shops and cafes. LBC is reporting five wounded.

Comments

[Shunkleash]

I wonder who's next? i just pray no more dead.

AYESH LUBNAN!

[Charlie]

They are spreading the "wealth' around!! criminals...

[fubar]

Charlie,

Not criminals, criminals are prosecuted.
Terrorists, terrorists are shot.

fast forward 5 years: Shia Ashrafieh, Shia Verdun, and Shia Aley. Shadoor import corporation

[Charlie]

Fubar,

I think we need to go Roman with this crew and crucify their butts

[Maya]

This is definitely a warning to Jumblatt after his statements yesterday. The tourist season is shut to hell now. This is going to be a very steamy summer.

[fubar]

Charlie,

I'm not Lebanese but...

Can I play too? I will bring my own gear. No trouble at all. Really.

Of course, maybe we should wait until after tomorrow and see what the LAF pulls out the hat.

[fubar]

(Daily Star, May 24) The head of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), Major General Ashraf Rifi, met separately Wednesday with US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman and parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri. Feltman expressed support for the ISF, saying the US would offer security forces military aid worth $60 million to assist them in their "national role in preserving security."

******

(AP) Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Finn, a Pentagon spokeswoman said the Defense Department has been working to quickly deliver a broad range of equipment and other materials to Lebanon.

"We hope to provide a robust package of security assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces in 2007 with more equipment and training," Finn said.

She said the Pentagon is "concerned about mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah, and their Lebanese allies are attempting to topple Lebanon's legitimate and democratically elected government led by Prime Minister Saniora."

Under a $30.4 million agreement that was finalized last month and is now awaiting congressional approval, Lebanon will be receiving small caliber ammunition, and spare parts for helicopters, trucks and other vehicles.

Finn also said that $10.6 million in spare parts was delivered last December to the Lebanese Armed Forces and that about $28.7 million worth of five-ton trucks, Humvees, spare parts and maintenance teams began arriving there this year.

Also, $2.7 million for helmets, tools and other spare parts and training and $300,000 for ammunition were delivered last year, and $4.8 million for body armor, naval equipment and a flight simulator will be delivered this year. Another $752,000 for education and training has been promised and is being delivered in 2006-2007.

[Charlie]

Fubar,

No need to be Lebanese to play my friend, we know that is not keeping the Syrians from playing in the Lebanese sand box!
This is a global problem that all should roll the sleeve, nail these bastards to the cross and mount them on the main highway for all to see and learn..

[fubar]

Well, as long as I have your okay, count me in.

But let's show a little restraint and not go over the top into Vlad the Impaler mode.

What village are we "from" and what is the name of the local priest? Just in case we get separated. = )

[Ibn Kais]

I hope the next explosion will be in Syria right in Bahsar Al Manyak's own bedroom. Enough is enough. Sign me up!

[Charlie]

Fubar,

any will do...check it out we might even get more help help along the way...seems like AK's grand kid wants in too...:-)

[ghassan karam]

Nabih Berri, the ustaz, is calling today in a column in An Nahar for what no one from the opposition has called for openly yet. I do not believe that this individual is the SPEAKER of the Parliament of a sovereign state. He is calling for making the arms of the resistance legitimate and asking that we enter into Lebanon through the gate of the resistance. That is simply incredulous.

تعالوا جميعاً لنعطي ترخيصاً لسلاح المقاومة المنضبط والملتزم لوحدة لبنان أرضاً وشعباً ومؤسسات والملتزم للمعاهدات التي تلتزمها الدولة عربياً ودولياً.
بعد ذلك تعالوا لندخل الى لبنان من بوابة المقاومة.

I am simply dumbfounded. This is a shameless statement if there has ever been any and in particular by the one who bills himself as Mr. moderation and as the leader who is earnestly seeking
'hiwar" and middle ground.

[Ibn Kais]

Nabih Berri is a douchebag, EOM

[Louis-Noel Harfouche]

Screw hiwaar! To hell with hiwaar and all those who peddle that hackneyed quisling device. The times of hiwaar are so last century. How can you have hiwar (how does a dick like Berry have the audacity to petition for hiwar) when the nawar are bumping off and trampling the symbols of "his" state's national prerogatives. bass I don't blame Berry-the-greying-phallus, I blame the rotten political culture and national ethos that gives him a platform (an-Nahar) and does not DEMAND that traitors like him be court-marshalled and guillotined, sur le champ.

The time of hiwars and arrangements and half-assed compromises is OVER. Enough with these silly charades already!
like I said on Mustapha's blog earlier, Sanioura and his freak-show (the dick Berry included, because it seems to me that they're all in cahoots at the end of the day) should either stand up to Syria and its ringers in Lebanon and call a spade a spade, or pack up the circus and set up shop in a different town and leave the job to someone who's actually WILLING and EAGER to get her hands dirty for the sake of Lebanon! Enough skulking and hesitating and giving a media platform to obsolete senile quislings like Berry already!
1- Declare marshall law and get the army on the streets (and the Shi'a and Palestian armed hoodlums off, FOREVER,) NOW if not earlier!
2- Those who refuse to turn in their illegal weapons should be thrown in jail (awaiting deportation proceedings.)
3- Lodge a formal complaint against Syria at the UN and cut ALL ties with that arsonist regime.
4- Syria's snotty monstrous behavior is nothing short of a declaration of war; so, short of bombing Damascus to smithereens, we need to shutter off our borders with that sandbox and station blue-helmets from the North all the way down to the Southeast... Shou fhémna??

Enough hedging and stammering already!!! Sanioura should have laid down the law, jailed the quislings, and declared marshall law last summer; instead he put on a cute lacrymose little show for the world (in the midst of a bunch of Arabs in their finely embroidered national nightgowns), and took refuge in the same empty lazy slingshots at Israel. So, not only did he earn the sympathy of the world (in the warped universe of super-virile Arabs, it takes a real man to cry on TV), but he really scared the bejeebies out of the Damascus racket and their thugs. Bravo Sanioura, 3afashattour! Reap what you have sown ya mrétt!
pffft!!!

btw, good to talk Ghassan ;)

[Bad Vilbel]

Hey! Someone stole my bit about martial law and arresting the traitors....

I was all poised to launch on my usual spiel..

Well said, Louis-Noel. That's my sentiment exactly.

[another_someone]

I love it when people call for alternatives, but don't really say what they have to offer.

Who is the alternative team that can do what you are suggesting instead of the current spineless leadership?

Thank god for free speech :)

[Craig]

Who is the alternative team that can do what you are suggesting instead of the current spineless leadership?

Jummy Carter is available.

[Jeha]

I was about to suggest Ghandi; his advice to Jews during the Nazi period was to commit mass suicide...

Seppuku, anyone?

[Shunkleash]

One comment did not make me laugh "we need to shutter off our borders with that sandbox and station blue-helmets from the North all the way down to the Southeast... Shou fhémna??" I agree 120%. Maybe, we can play our part in isolating Syria and screwing her economy a little more.

AYESH LUBNAN!!!

[Roman Kalik]

I was about to suggest Ghandi; his advice to Jews during the Nazi period was to commit mass suicide...

Really? It's only ironic to note that Europe's Jews took the way of mental suicide rather than the physical one. Denial and self-delusion served the Nazis well, Jabotinsky's calls for mass immigration were left unheeded, and he was banned from almost every synagogue he visited with his words of warning.

The Jews did not leave the Exile. So the Exile ate them. Fortunately, some at least decided to fight, and decided that to die fighting in the camps was better than to die in a gas chamber.

[Jeha]

Roman,

Not all gave up so easily...

There was a famous Soviet unit of Jews fighting the Germans; they were quite effective. And then there were a few Maquisards in France, one of whom became "Dassault".

[Roman Kalik]

You are correct, Jeha, and there were also the occasional Jewish partisan groups in Eastern Europe.

But when one compares the number of people who actively fought to the number of people who *could* fight or leave... one realizes just how powerful self-delusion can be, and that eventually it leads to a hopelessness very few can beat.

[another_someone]

So no serious takers then? :-) In the immortal words of BV: "Bleh..."

Regarding closing the border with Syria. You need to be very careful here. About 70% of Lebanon's food needs are satisfied by imports, of which a large part is brought in by land from Syria. Unless you plan to fast for a while, or prepare other alternatives, it will backfire on you.

[Louis-Noel Harfouche]

"Regarding closing the border with Syria. You need to be very careful here. About 70% of Lebanon's food needs are satisfied by imports, of which a large part is brought in by land from Syria. Unless you plan to fast for a while, or prepare other alternatives, it will backfire on you"

Eh ballah shou yaamo!
1--Is it for nothing that the Bekaa is referred to by western geographers as the "granary of Rome"? It once fed an Empire; you want to tell me it can't feed a puny 10452Km2?
2--If indeed 70% of our produce comes from Syria, then all the more reasons to close down those borders! We'll see THEN who will be doing the starving and who will be making nutritional adjustments! It is common knowledge that Syria has been treating Lebanon in classical colonialist style for the past 30 years (and by that I don't mean the occupation; I mean the dumping of Syrian sub-standard products, cheap produce, unskilled labor, paupers, misfits and thugs on Lebanese markets.) Closing off the borders should put an end to these colonialist practices.
3--After all that we've been through, I would much rather pay $10/kg of tomatoes, rather than feed the Syrian economy by buying cheaper produce.
4--And finally, another_someone, don't short-change and underestimate Lebanese ingenuity.

[another_someone]

So much passion, so much fire :)

1- I don't know, I am not a geographer, are you?
2-Please read carefully:
a-I did not say 70% of the produce, I said 70% of your food needs come from imports.
b-I also said the majority of those 70% food needs, have to cross by land through your border with Syria, which DOES NOT mean that ALL of it is Syrian product, coming from Syria.
3-Good for you, now ask the rest of the population if they can afford it, if yes, submit the idea to your MP, and start the ball rolling.
4-I am not, just don't shoot yourself in the foot. Think your plans thoroughly.

I still do not have a serious answer to my question of replacing these yoyos in your government with men of steel cojones?
Craig comes close since his answer does not involve raising the dead, but then I doubt his candidate qualifies in the cojones department. :-)

[BadVilbel]

another_someone,

The big question is indeed that of who we have, in Lebanon, that can truely lead a nation to its true potential.

Sadly, at the moment, we are stuck with these yoyos. I've often argued with some on here, who have said we need to pick the lesser of two evils, better a yoyo who's trying hard (Saniora), than a traitor yoyo (Nas, Aoun, etc.)

I've been of a similar mind to Louis-Noel here, in that I am a bit more intransigant. I want competent people running the country, period. What is more, I want a system that allows competent people to be put in a position to lead (the current system does not).

But I fully admit, to anyone who asks, that I AM an idealist. I do not have any delusions. I realize that from a pragmatist point of view, we have to play the hand we're dealt. And right now, there really aren't any "replacements" available.

[another_someone]

I think you will be fooling yourself if you are looking for 'competent politicians'. These 2 words are self-repulsive. That is the state of politics everywhere.

I also think you are blinded by idealism. Not that it is not a good thing to aim for, but asking too much when you can only achieve baby steps you will achieve nothing because you will not accept any less.

[BadVilbel]

Did you not read what I just said? :)

I just said that I realize and I'm an idealist, and that it's something to aim for. But that I also realize right now, we have to go by baby steps. Same thing you said.