Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Lahoud - the illegitimate criminal who won't go away!

Two major developments transpired over these past couple of days that highlight the uniqueness of the American political system in this world. The first pertains to a man who was once commonly referred to as the most powerful politician in Washington DC, Tom Delay. The second pertains to a high-ranking political appointee at the Homeland Security Department, Brian Doyle.

Both cases revolve around the consequences of powerful men partaking in criminal behavior. In Tom Delay's case, we have a wrecked political career and a trial. In Brian Doyle's case, we have an arrest, a court appearance and a confession. Both these men have fallen hard on their faces because they erroneously believed that their seats in officialdom offered them protection from the law.

In Lebanon, we have a President of the Republic who, in all likelihood, is guilty of at least turning a blind eye to the assassination of the country's Prime Minister. The man has lost all legitimacy among most Lebanese - notice the Patriarch's recent (scathing) comments regarding his status. Yet, the bastard simply does not want to Let Go!!!

I cannot help but remember the Pathetic Yasser Arafat, quivering as gibberish spewed out of his disgusting mouth in the last years of his life. Every time that man appeared on television, I wondered to myself why that idiot could not fathom a dignified exit from politics such as that of Nelson Mandela.

There is no dignified exit for Lahoud anymore. It is such a shame that March 14 does not have the strength to shove him out. It is even more of a shame that Lebanese law and state institutions are not powerful enough to deal with him on their own.

Lahoud looks like he is going to remain in his seat of power. He will continue with his duties, and represent his new (or not so new) constituency: the Guardian Council of Lebanon and the Dictator of Damascus.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lahoud is an individual who lacks vision, is not eloquent , not articulate, not well read, has a mediocre education and yet was able to rise to the highest position in the land. This conundrum can't even be attributed to The Peter Principle since ,I am certain, he reached his level of incompetence long before he became a president.
Under the circumstances only one thing can explain his rise to power and his continued insistence not to heed to the appeal of the masses. It seems that he was appointed to his position as a Kapo by the Syrian Gestapo in order to punish his people for thirty silver. His only qualification must be submission and subservience.

Anonymous said...

> Lahoud - the illegitimate criminal who won't go away!
And yet the "14th" people would rather have him STAY PRESIDENT than accept someone like Aoun.

I mean Aoun can be crazy, boneheade and whatever you like but to prefer Lahoud over him, especially when they claim (I guess rightly so) that Lahoud is a criminal and an accomplice murderer!
Oh the hypocrisy!

Pat

Raja said...

Pat, you make a good point there. the inability of March 14 to arrive at a "consensus candidate" with Aoun (whether it is Aoun himself or not) is just unacceptable.

Anonymous said...

" Lahoud - the illegitimate criminal who won't go away!
And yet the "14th" people would rather have him STAY PRESIDENT than accept someone like Aoun.
"

few days ago, joumblat declared to one of my sources that lahoud would remain in office.

anyway they pushed aoun to the opposition since his arrival in lebanon, from last's year election and the government constitution.
the good question would be why do they fear aoun ? and especially why joumblatt fears him.

i guess the key is here and if u discover the key, u would be astonished and very suprised about how some clean guys related to the current power are having in reality dirty hands.

regards

Anonymous said...

I thought I read that Jumblatt said his party would nominate Aoun if Aoun accepts the PSP's "road map"?

I don't know if the March14 are completely to blame for pushing Aoun to the opposition. I think the blame is on both of them.. They didnt offer him enouegh seats on his list, he was asking for too many seats considering his absence from local politics and his arrival speach in Beirut didnt help him either..

Karami resigned why cant Lahoud resign? I thought in Lebanon things only happen when they have a common denominator of two (muslim, christian) or six?? :-)

AbdulKarim said...

Ramzi, your last statement is perfectly right.

Pat,

As for why March 14 prefer Lahoud to stay 2 more years than having Aoun for 6, well there is a proverb in Lebanon which says:

"Waja3 Sa3a wala waja3 kil sa3a"

In English that means a pain of one hour rather than the pain of evrey hour. It makes perfect sense. Can't see where the hpocracy is!

Regards

Anonymous said...

Eagle,
I have a feeling it's simpler than that.
IMHO the reason why the hariri group and the FPM are not getting along while everyone keeps expecting they do is that they both think they deserve special treatement. The FPM because they have been left out of the government and fighting against syria for 15 years and the FM for having lost Hariri.

None of them is willing to make any concession to the other party because they both feel they deserve the other party should make a concession to them. They both feel the other party should undertstand their point of view because of that.

Then each party sees the unwilingness of the other as a "hostile" act then it is a tit for tat issue ...

Pat.

Anonymous said...

AbdulKarim ,
To use your proverb as an example, the hypocrizy I am talking about is equating the pain caused by Aoun (ie we don't like him or he is bone headed or we prefer someone else or whatever thay are calling Aoun at the moment) with Lahoud's pain (he is a criminal, illegitimate, accomplice murderer, syrian puppet).
If 6 years with Aoun seems as bad to you as 1.5 years with a "criminal" well that's another issue.

Unless maybe they don't really think Lahoud is all those things they call him but I don't read minds.

Doha,
The constitution already has such a clause, it requries 2/3 of the parliment to suggest it and 3/4 to force the president to accept it.
If some people want to force a change without requiring 2/3 and 3/4 then by all means suggest it to the rest of the parliment lebanese and vote for it and if it gets accepted then that's great.

Ramzi,
I think you are right, actually i just heard someone from Aoun's block say they think the PSP's suggestion is completely fair and makes sense and they support it. I donnow if that's Aoun's opinion or just people from his parlimentary block
Also I think if the 14th block can get Lahoud to resign without help from Aoun then that would be perfect and the problem solved, but since it seems they can't, the next step should be to work with Aoun for that and not accept that the next best choice is to get Lahoud to stay.

Pat

Dr Victorino de la Vega said...

Frankly Raja, I’m not sure who’s the biggest “criminal” here.

In my view, certainly not Emile Lahoud, the inoffensive stooge of a now decrepit Syrian regime that doesn’t really pose a threat to Lebanon’s fledging sovereignty.
There are more dangerous criminals on the loose in Lebanon, many of them in Parliament or in the office of the Prime Minister…

Frankly, there always was some kind of fake aftertaste to the official March 14 narrative that you and your gullible ilk like to follow: too many sleek talking points produced by Saatchi & Saatchi and recited by semi-literate drones such as “Sheikh” Saad and “Sitt” Stridah, or even worse, declaimed pompously by cynical thugs such as Waleed “Beyck” and his racist Jamaa Islamiyyah friends!

I’m afraid the truth has always been less romantic: nearly all of Lebanon’s supposedly“anti-Syrian” politicians and other self-righteous “resistants of the eleventh hour” were actually brought up by sinister Syrian apparatchiks such as A.H. Khaddâm and Gen. Ghazi Kanaan while General Michel Aoun lived in exile and his followers were persecuted by Hariri’s political police

Here's a typical quote from freedom loving Haririst-in-chief Walid Jumblatt (criticizing Michel Aoun in a March 2000 interview):
"We condemn those who revive claims that Syria is a foe and an enemy [...] advocates of this claim, which proved to be destructive to Lebanon, have not learned from the past."

I’m not sure if that makes him “a keen reader of history” as his friend Rafic al-Hariri used to say of him.
“Cynical courtier” or “callous collaborator” comes to mind…

AbdulKarim said...

Pat,

Equating Lahoud's 1.5 years to Aoun's 6 years is not because Aoun is criminal or illegitimate as Lahoud, but its the pain of having to deal with another General or military mentality for another six years.

Regards

Anonymous said...

"but its the pain of having to deal with another General or military mentality for another six years."

lebanese politicians are more dangerous then militaries.

most of the lebanese politicians collaborated to some extends with the syrians