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On the notorious downhill turn of the village of Kahaleh, a truck loaded with bullets of death and terror intended to drag the Lebanese into the abyss of death and murder. However, and as is always the case, the Lebanese Army exhibited sufficient vigilance. Owing to the wisdom of its leadership and the Lebanese people’s respect for its sacrifices, it successfully eluded the outbreak of a civil war with unforeseeable consequences.
Despite all the criticism and ill-intentioned narratives, the Lebanese Army was able, in a non-populist way, to shield Lebanon from the direst oucomes thanks to the capabilities and broad perspective of its leadership.
This raises the following questions: What if the army had allowed bystanders to unload the truck cargo? What if it had abstained from interfering? What if it had abstained from beefing up its presence in more than one Lebanese area? And what if the truck loaded with weapons had been handed over to its owners?
Some believe that the army’s action serve Hezbollah, but the reality is quite different. Every single time the army takes a stance, it thwarts Hezbollah’s schemes to subjugate the Lebanese people through its overflow of power. The Lebanese Army has unequivocally proven that it treats Lebanon’s security as a top priority.
The Lebanese Army has entrenched that it stands as a symbol of national unity against all forms of strife, let alone any attemps at turning Lebanon into an arena designed for the implementation of policies that are foreign to the country and that violate its sovereignty. In Kahaleh, the mask of Resistance fell off the militia’s face, and the army foiled the scheme that claims that it would sever any hand that approaches the Resistance’s weapon, or rather, “the militia’s.”
It has become quite clear to most Lebanese people that those who have taken to terrorizing the Lebanese people and resorting to the idiom of raising fingers have no qualms about shooting unarmed citizens in their own towns for the sake of protecting a shipment of weapons.
The Lebanese must understand that there are times when the army acts with wisdom and foresight, just as it did in Kahaleh. But the minute it relinquishes its role as the symbol of national unity and the defender of its citizens and territory, Lebanon as a whole would fall into the hands of those who freely transport shipments of death and murder.
The army is the only standing institution in this country, and rallying around it will avert the complete collapse of the State. But the next time around, it won’t be in Kahaleh alone but throughout Lebanon.
