March 14: no compromise, army must protect citizens

Samir Geagea delivered the March 14 statement after a long meeting.  Two main points to be highlighted: Hizbullah's weapons lost whatever legitimacy they may have had (Samir Geagea nearly said "gotcha"), and the army must carry out its duty to protect citizens and their property. The statement described Hizbullah's actions as a military coup, and said they will soon come to realize the extent of their actions.

March 14 also called on Arab states and the international community to halt the return of Syria to Lebanon, and the advancement of Iran to the Mediterranean.

Geagea said there will no compromise. March 14 will persevere and "will not be terrorized".

Now Lebanon has a rough translation here.  A few excerpts in Arabic here.

Update. I realize you might not be able to access those links. Here are the excerpts in Arabic.

جعجع: بيروت اجتاحتها جحافل "حزب الله" لكنها لن تستلسم.
جعجع: انه انقلاب على الوحدة الوطنية والدستور.
جعجع: بيروت ضربت بالاسلحة المرسلة من طهران عبر دمشق.
جعجع: تحية الى سعد الحريري ابن رفيق الحريري الذي ظنوا ان باغتياله يغتالون لبنان، وتحية الى وليد جنبلاط الذي قاوم المخرز السوري.
جعجع: هذا الانقلاب لن يشكل رادعا لنا بل حافزا لتكريس سيادة لبنان.
جعجع: ما نفذه "حزب الله" هو انقلاب على العيش المشترك والقرارات الدولية، وهذه المحاولة الانقلابية اسقطت نهائيا شرعية سلاح "حزب الله"، ولن تجدي مقولة ان السلاح يستعمل لحماية السلاح.
جعجع: استعمال السلاح ضد اللبنانيين لن يصنع اي انتصار.
جعجع: ان قيادة الجيش اللبناني الى الاضطلاع بواجباتها في حماية المواطنين ووضع حد لحالة الاتفلات والعنف.
جعجع: تتوجه قوى 14 آذار الى كل الدول العربية لان الانقلاب الذي ينفذ هدفه ارجاع سوريا الى لبنان وايصال ايران الى المتوسط.
جعجع: على المجتمع الدولي الضغط على الدول التي تمرر السلاح.
جعجع: نؤكد تمسكنا بالمبادىء التي قامت عليها ثورة الارز، ونؤكد ان اعمال العنف لا ترهبنا، وقوى 14 آذار تؤكد وقوفها مع حكومة الرئيس السنيورة.

Comments

[Bad Vilbel]

"Gotcha" is all nice and fine.
But I still don't see a plan of action here for M14. "Wait and see" isn't gonna cut it.

And I really don't know what M14 is still going on about the army. The army (and more importantly it's commander) have shown to be useless at protecting the citizens. What's worse, if you really think about it, with HA turning over the parts of West Beirut they're taking over to the army, this has all the indications of the army command being in cahoots with HA. Next step, Michel Suleiman gets to be president and he turns to M14 and goes "Gotcha! I was with the Syrians all along, you idiots."

[Bad Vilbel]

Holy shit! I just made the mistake of checking Mustapha's blog (Beirut Spring). Kinda makes me appreciate the more civil debate we have around these parts (thanks AK!).

There is an unusually high concentration of idiots over there in the comment section. It seems all the fucktards and asshats have come out of the woodwork to gloat about their "victory".

I think I'm going to avoid going there from now on.

[Solomon2]

I'm puzzled. They are going to try to fight Hizb via passive resistance? Does M14 think Lebanese will just sit back, do nothing, and thus let the economy collapse around Hizbullah, or at least not supply Hizb with food and shelter?

[Bad Vilbel]

8:48 pm Rice said Washington stands by the Lebanese government, adding the United States would provide the support that Saniora needs
8:00 pm U.S. State Department voiced confidence in how Saniora's government and army were dealing with an "offensive" by Hizbullah fighters.

Uhm...Can someone explain this one to me? Confidence in how the government and army are dealing with HA? Not doing anything? Very odd statement.

[Cedar Revolution II & Gebran Sons]

After Hezbollah or more appropriately HezbIran raped Beirut in broad daylight, it will next start eliminating its useful puppets, such as Aoun, after their usefulness is no longer needed as Iran has taken over of Lebanon. But as Iran greatly overestimates its military power, Hezbollah will soon realize that democracy roots cannot be easily uprooted in Lebanon, not even in the Shia community that suffocates most from these barbarians. Hezbollah has fallen into a trap. It has lost its most important battle, the legitimacy of its weapon. It has willingly provoked Israel into destroying Shiites villages to legitimize the weapons, and now that legitimacy has evaporated to no return. Hezbollah downfall is certain and only a question of time as the flame of democracy will always win at the end. Anyone cooperating with Hezbollah or justifying its action is a traitor to Lebanon and his glory will be short lived. The cedar Revolution part II is rising from the ashes away from all feudal and civil war leaders to truly represent the hopes and capability of free Lebanese. Brave Lebanese youth will once again teach the region about true democracy, human rights and live in dignity. The get together of free and democratic individuals, human and women right supporters, environmental activists and many others has just began. We will identify from the political, economic and academic landscape those deserving of representing us in the next elections on a clear agenda of freedom, sovereignty and independence. We will show the world what the youth of the Cedar Revolution are capable of. The march towards democracy has just began!

[tg]

I give it a week before Geagea either flees the country or is arrested.

[Bad Vilbel]

Nah. Geagea and the rest of them M14 guys will be fine staying in the "enclave" (yes folks, I'm bringing back the terminology from the 80s). Hizbo is not going to go into the Christian areas (East Beirut to Jbeil, roughly).

[Doha]

Guys, what do you say to that: The Future TV General Manager just said on LBC that they asked the Army to protect buildings for the Future TV, but no protection was provided.

The old Future TV building has been burned and all the TV network's archives are lost. And the TV's cables have been cut knowingly that it will take weeks to resume coverage, and guess who was accompanying those HA thugs? An Army officer!

[Umm K.]

BV--I noticed that on Mustapha's blog too. Some scary (read: uneducated) people commenting over there...

[JoseyWales]

At this point Condi and her diplomats can go screw themselves.

As to Geagea, I am sorry, but no one is impressed anymore. To hell with these stupid speeches:

We stand behind the Saniora gvmnt, the Arabs are with us, bla bla bla, Come on man, I can hear your LF guys laughing.

Finally keeping Saniora to avoid the void? I'll take the bigger and better VOID, with a big sucking sound, anytime now.

And Sleimane can resign too, see if I give a shit who heads the army.

Yallah, kello 3a'zbeleh.

These people are staying to inspire confidence? I have ZERO confidance in them.

They are staying to do their job? They are NOT doing their fucking job.

[Renee]

BV, I concur on the comments section over at Mustapha's blog, yikes. The thing is, I'm seeing that at other websites as well. It makes me sick. Some are gloating over their "victory" and all I can think of are the Lebanese who are dead.

I have to say, though, that I agree with the post by Cedar Revolution. I thought Geagea's speech was the right one to give. HA has exposed themselves openly before all Lebanese as nothing more than a terrorist group owned and operated by Assad. It was stupid of HA to place his pics all over the place. It was a death sentence to HA to use their weapons on innocent Lebanese. To burn down offices? The works of terrorists and thugs.

March 14 and the Lebanese haven't been abandoned. I agree with others. The Lebanese need to try to stay calm and safe as best they can right now, and lay low. There is a wider picture here than what is being seen on the streets.

[Bad Vilbel]

Doha,

What we say to that? The same thing I've been saying for 2 days now: The army is not NEUTRAL. Michel Suleiman has been Syria's man all along.
M14 can keep talking up the Army all they want. It doesn't change the fact that the army has been infiltrated for years, and as my friend Josey put it earlier "Made in Syria".
It may have fooled the M14 leaders into thinking they had some kind of control over it, but it became clear to me that they didn't the moment Suleiman refused to obey the PM in declaring a state of emergency.
And make no mistake about it, if HA had any REAL concerns about the army not being loyal to them (that whole "the army is now our enemy" was a big bluff) they wouldn't be handing over Future militants to the army.

I think this has been in the works for a long time. We all knew when Suleiman's name started floating a few months ago, that he was really a Syrian stooge. But instead of taking the confrontational approach of Aoun, HA played this brilliantly. They made Aoun the bad cop to Suleiman's "good cop". Made Suleiman and the army look neutral. The (suspiciously convenient) Nahr Al Bared incident was used to build up the army. Up until M14 was almost convinced to accept Suleiman as president. Having that in the bag, HA then tried asking for more (government veto, etc.)
All the while M14 thought they had the army to back them up. To the point where M14 made the mistake of trying to take on HA directly (Jumblatt's sudden accusations about the cameras and the telecom network). This gave HA the pretext to stage their coup, and for good measure, Nassrallah pretended to be against the army with his assertion that the army was now an enemy of HA. M14 played right into that, by trying to declare a state of emergency, thinking that would be their winning card.
Suleiman refused, and M14 fell apart, having no backup plan.

That's all it is.

[Bad Vilbel]

Renee,

Enough already with the "HA has exposed themselves".

WE DIDN'T NEED 3 DAYS OF VIOLENCE TO REALIZED THEY WERE THUGS!

Most of us already knew this.
The ONLY people who didn't really get it were the rabid Aounists. They're the ONLY ones who actually believed HA was some kind of noble fighting force. And guess what. Those idiots STILL THINK THAT today.

So stop trying to somehow justify the mayhem of the past 3 days by trying to tell me it exposed anything new. It didn't expose anything we didn't already know about HA.

The only thing it TRULY exposed is the incompetence and failure of March 14.

[Doha]

Yes BV, now on LBC, Future TV reporters are saying how baffled they are at what the Army did to the TV buildings.

[JoseyWales]

I am not going back to Mustapha's blog today.

That's what I meant in my earlier comment on an earlier thread, when I said some were starting to go "Sunni" on us here.

The whole country is going down the tubes and there's plenty of blame to go around.

I don't care to engage with those who are upset and discovered blogging TODAY just because two Sunnis (Saad and Saniora) had a bad hair day.

[RebLeb]

Condoleeza Rice said the US would provide help to Saniora government. The B-52s are coming, Nasrallah. Soon your stupid beard will be on fire. And you will eat your turban too. HAHAHAHAHAAA

[Bad Vilbel]

Keep dreaming, RebLeb...

[RebLeb]

Bad Vilbel
Uncle Dick (Cheney) has a short fuse, you never know.

[Vox P]

In a post 9-11 world, the Christians shouldn't have too much difficulty marketing this conflict as a fight between good and jihadists. If we play this thing well, we might liquidate this fake country once and for all and establish our own state. I am sorry for the moderate muslims out there, but let's face it, they are a minority in their sects.

[AK]

Vox, chill out, please. No sectarian crap here and no calls for ethnic cleansing.

[Vox P.]

Sorry AK, I am just saying loud what most Christians say in private, including the orangists for that matter.

[Charlie]

Vox P..
Good going man..one little battle and let each group now run to their own cocoon...:-)

[marillionlb]

Ya Jama3a khalas, wake up and admit to the following:
The Hizb is moving forward (with the blessing of Syria and Iran amongst others) to take over Lebanon.
M14 are useless and they will not bring salvation.
The army is incapable of protecting one kilometer of our land.
Michel Suleiman is not the promised Munkez.
The Lebanese people will always wait until it is too late to react (if they ever do).
Lebanon is lost !

[Bad Vilbel]

As much as I've been doom and gloom, let's not get carried away here. HA does nto have the ability to take over all of Lebanon. Nor do I think are they interested in that.
This whole affair is not about taking over the state.
HA is perfectly happy not getting bogged down trying to subdue Sunnis and Christian populations. That would sidetrack them from their real goals.
What this is really about is putting the upstart M14 back in its place.
HA is perfectly happy having a PARALLEL state to the legitimiate state, as long as said state doesn't cross their lines or try to take their weapons.
They're fine letting the state pave the roads, and administer the bureaucracy and all that crap.
The problem is that M14 got the bright idea of tackling things like telecom networks, and cameras, and the next step was going to be the weapons of HA. So HA had to knock M14 down a notch. Show them who's boss. Nas is telling us: You can have your little government if you want. Just don't think you can come boss us around. We will do as we want in our areas. We will run our own phone lines and we will keep our weapons.

[LebExile]

Bad Vibel,

I believe it is much more than that. It is no coincidence that the Hariri tribunal is possibly weeks from beginning, and yet, hiz go after the future movement...

why did they so vehmemently attack future movement and not the PSP... isn't Jumblatt their greatest enemy??? Didn't Hassin himself accuse Jumblatt of being the true PM and Senioura this deputy??

I believe this is intimidation to try derail the IT and that is it....

yes, Hiz are happy to have a weak pro west state - that at least keeps the west a little sympathetic to Lebanon when Israel is pulverising the place, but, the IT is definately not acceptable!!!

[LebExile]

BTW... I believe our greatest weapon - that even trumps Hizz weapons at this moment is not the army but the IT!!!