Hizballah needs to decide whether it is Lebanese!

I think Lebanon may gain a lot by being somehow hezbolla-ized. Many of the party leaders have a lot to learn from Nasrallah, in term of social awareness, charisma, disinterest in bribery, coherence and discipline in his ranks...

That brief statement was part of Why Discuss's response to the last entry, titled Hizbollah-ising the Lebanese State. It is nonsense. It is a useless counterargument because it completely misses the point.

Why Discuss would have us believe that this entire conflict is about Hassan Nasrallah's charisma, his social awareness, his disinterest in bribery, and the coherence and discipline of his ranks. So the Hiwar el Watani has come about because the March 14 forces simply could not bring themselves to accept such a political entity in the government and consequently, refused to cooperate. That type of counterargument, my dear friends, is unfortunately a typical format used most diligently by the nuisance of a commenter Victorino de la Vega. It deliberately eludes the point of the intitial argument in order to distract the reader and draw his or her attention somewhere else.

The point of contention between Hizballah and the overwhelming majority of Lebanese, is not over its bureaucracy, or the charisma of its leader, or the "coherence" (whatever that means) and "discipline" of its ranks. The point of contention is over Hizballah's military wing:

• Hizballah has a para-military force of about 20,000 - 30,000 men (compared to Lebanon's 60,000-man Army) - most of which are reserves, but never-the-less well trained.
  
  
• Hizballah has a global network of sleeper cells that are intended to carry out attacks and assassinations if and when they receive the orders to do so.
  
  
• Hizballah's arsenal includes thousands of rockets that target Israeli settlements, towns and cities.
  
  
• Hizballah funds Palestinian organizations
  
  
• Hizballah is purportedly training the militia of Musa el Sadr in Iraq
  
  
• Hizballah possesses intelligence services that work in Lebanon in order to "protect its flanks," and in doing so, spy on other Lebanese.

In reaction to the pressure exerted on Hizballah to disarm, it is common to hear the following from the Lebanese Shi'a population:

"baddun e ashtoulna sla7na" (they wanna take our weapons away). Well I would LOVE to ask the following question in response:

WHY THE HELL DO YOU NEED THESE WEAPONS???

or rather,

HOW DO YOU BENEFIT FROM THESE WEAPONS???

Okay, Prestige... and Pride... we understand - but how else?

Let me ask those Lebanese who defend Hizballah and its right to bear weapons: Why does Lebanon need sleeper cells in Argentina, Chile, Germany or the US? How are Hizballah's cells in those countries a benefit to Lebanon's national security? If you think that those cells, the rockets Hizballah has positioned in the South, and the men that Hizballah sends to train militias in Iraq are meant to protect Lebanon, you are a fool!

I lived in Lebanon throughout the 1990s. The level of coordination between Hizballah and Syria was SICKENING!!! I was there when the Israelis withdrew, and we all celebrated the fact that Lebanese land was liberated AND that we would no longer have to fight a war in the South. Do you know how it felt when Hizballah declared - OH WAIT, WE JUST REMEMBERED, WE STILL NEED TO LIBERATE THE SHEB'AA FARMS!

That was disgusting - and that was the beginning of the end of Hizballah's legitimacy in Lebanon.

HIZBALLAH NEEDS TO DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT IT IS LEBANESE. That is it! That is the decision that Nasrallah needs to make today. The Shia need to really ask themselves WHY THE HELL DO THEY NEED THOSE WEAPONS - AND HOW DOES IT BENEFIT THEM? The Shi'a should also ask themselves whether those weapons actually harm them.

If Hizballah's leadership decides that it is not Lebanese, then the Lebanese, led by the Shi'a population, should unite and either force it to become Lebanese or expel it from our country.