The Rise and Fall of Michel Aoun

By: Charles Jalkh (Freedom Fighter)

October 22/06

October 22/06

For 15 years, he carried the flame of Free Lebanon, and inspired a generation of Lebanese freedom fighters in Lebanon and throughout the Diaspora, into steadfastness and resistance to the Syrian hegemony over Lebanon. Michel Aoun rode the waves on an ancient, powerful, and deep rooted Lebanese nationalist stream coupled with secular yearnings for a modern, liberal, and compassionate society.

That was history, today, the “Aoun generation” who fought valiantly, with broken bones and bloodied noses, is orphaned, but it is neither homeless nor aimless. All Free Lebanese are still at home with the March 14 Cedars Revolution. It is our nationalistic melting pot, our awakening, our fragrant bouquet of people brought together by their yearning for freedom and dignified living.

All illusions have fallen! The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) which originally attracted nationalists with its fervor for independence, and the intelligentsia with its progressive and secular ideals, has become more than a disappointment. The intelligentsia is today deeply troubled by Aoun’s alliance with a fundamentalist militia and a state within the state. The Battle for free Lebanon is not finished as declared by Michel Aoun, but it is close. It will conclude soon with Lebanon’s total victory over the Syrian Stalinist Dictatorship.  When freedom remains static, it is overrun by the darkness and dies. So the light of our Freedoms must penetrate all the dark alleys of the Middle East. We will achieve strategic security only when the satanic Syrian Assad regime is overthrown and replaced by a democratic and humane Syria. The regime leaders shall imminently be brought to justice at the International Court for their (continuing) crimes against humanity. Until then, we remain fearless, proud, and cheerful, for we are today more united, more Lebanese, and mightier than ever. The battle for Free Lebanon shall be won and very soon.

We are thankful to the world for its awakening, its actions, its resolve. We are thankful to Europe who swiftly moved to seal the Eastern Mediterranean against terror, with air, sea, and land forces under Security Council resolution 1701. The next phase is to expand this security zone eastward cutting through a collapsing Syrian regime, all the way to the Iraqi Western border. A new Syrian regime will mean cutting both Hezbollah’s and Iraq’s western insurgent’s logistical lifelines, thus helping to stabilize both Lebanon and Iraq.

As to the theory that Aoun’s alliance with Hezbollah meant to protect the Christian Lebanese from the regional Sunni-Shia struggle, it is factually and morally bankrupt. The struggle in Lebanon is not between the Sunnis and Shiites, rather it is between Free Lebanon and the Syria-Iran occupation. Throughout history, the Christians have been the “Avant Garde” of Free Lebanon. They never stayed on the sidelines when it pertained to Lebanon’s independence and freedoms. Today they are thrilled and honored to unite with the Sunnis, Druze, as well as large segments of the Lebanese Shiites and all other Lebanese ethnic and religious groups, to defend Free Lebanon. A Great Nation is being established.

Michel Aoun’s 180 degree turn is equivalent to a grandiose and historical act of thievery. He hijacked our Lebanese votes and surrendered them to the Syrian regime. This will be remembered for a long time. Where is the honor in letting your co-citizens be slaughtered by a barbaric regime from the Middle Ages? The victim is not any one or more ethnic group, the victim is every Lebanese citizen regardless of religious or ethnic background. We are all threatened existentially by the Axis of Evil.

The FPM members of parliament have one last historical chance to save face. Come back to the Cedars Revolution immediately, or fall down in our national history to its bottom of insignificance.