Francois

I will not call you My General…
I will not call you The future Chef of staff of the Lebanese Army…
I will not call you The Lebanese Martyr…
I will just cal you my friend… my countryman… my neighbor…
I will call you an example of wisdom, a symbol of pride…

In the middle of the Lebanese disaster… the Lebanese war… you were a hope…
In the middle of cowardness you were a hero…
In the middle of the night you stick to your faith in the country, the institution, the system… and you defended all of this with the insistence of a soldier, the bravery of a cavalier, the Noblesse of the old stories’ knights…
You did carry the flag to the last drop of your blood…
You did carry the dream until you fall down under its weight…

If you were just anyone they wouldn’t kill you…
If you were too easy they wouldn’t blast you…
If you were weak as they wish every one become, they wouldn’t choose you…
When they choose to kill you it was meant to kill the dream of having a livable Lebanon, a stable country that not fears their Terror or their tools… It was meant to kill a Commander that knows exactly where the real danger is and what should be done to get rid of…

My dear friend…
You are another one that leaves us in all the festivities our enemy forces us to live in every time we start dreaming about an end to our sufferings…
You are joining the caravan, not only of the Lebanese Army’s Martyrs since Benoit that was killed the same day (12/12/1958) to Ibrahim who served with you, but you are joining the leader’s list, the list of those symbols who were a danger to “their” plans in devouring Lebanon since Bashir to Mouawad, Hariri, Pierre, Jibran, 3ido, Ghanem… and all the others who fall in this long march toward the resurrection of our beloved Lebanon, the temple of God, the guardian of its Cedars, the grain of love that El the god of the old Phoenicians asked Anaat to plant around the world and that Lebanon still trying to keep alive in this Middle Easy full of hatred…

Rest in Peace my friend in the hands of God and pray for us so the days to come bring more hopes and brighter dreams that make your priceless loss an acceptable present to God in this Christmas time where the angels should be announcing Peace on earth…

Our deep condolences to the family, Laudy and the children, the mother, father, brothers and sisters, to all the people of Rmeish, Ain-Ebel and the Area that dared to dream of having again the chance to give so this country will rise from its ashes…

Maroun Diab
Canada
December 14/07