based on my previous post critisizing the job openings posted on a certain site, and just to show that i am not critisizing for the sake of it, here is a corrected version i wrote in like 10 minutes ..

I didnt write an extra professional thing, just a more appropriate one, and didnt take more time doing so just to prove no effort was put into writing this page, meaning whomever did it was not serious about it, and therefore will be damaging to the LF and this whole reform project rather than helpful.

Feel free to send it to whomever is in charge there and use it, i dont want any credits nor thanks whatsoever.

I just wanna see who’s gonna critisize or attack me this time …

This is a CONSTRUCTIVE post .. if you dont wanna take it that way, dont read it at all, and i hope there are concerned people who will pass the message to whomever wrote this disgraceful page ..

PS: am not gonna link to the page.

The Lebanese Forces is inviting Volunteers, interested in being part of a dynamic reform, to apply for senior positions in its organization.

Pragmatic and results oriented approach
Ability to manage and motivate team and deliver outputs of high professional standard in challenging circumstances
Strong written and oral communication skills
Proven ability to take initiatives and make decisions under pressure
Proficiency in the Arabic, English, and French

Remarks,
Whomever wrote this is not even competent to write proper english .. is that so much to ask ??
Punctuation is so horrible and the text is so unprofessional and the contact is a GMAIL Address ??

If you are selling a product, the first rule in Marketing is to promote it and present it in a proper way ..

Finally, we have the best universities in Lebanon, isnt it better to go there and look for potential applicants ?

Thank you.

I posted Operation Cold River two days ago and got laughed at by some people.

Well, they are executing the plan as i posted it and have reached Phase 3 and should be undergoing Phase 4 tomorrow or the day after ..

I should seriously consider joining the army !

You will find people betting where will the next explosion take place and actually enjoying the talk …

Careless about what can happen, given the fact that they could be among the victims ..

This people has a strong will, lets pray that God will protect us.

Patriarch Sfeir surprising everyone went to visit Pr.Lahoud today.

He informed him that the Bkerke & The Vatican put their hands on the presidential elections and that there shouldnt be any attempt to delay electing a new president.

I dont know how smart was that move, i dont know if Lahoud can do anything about this whole issue, but the man is giving it a last attempt. Announcing from Baabda that the presidency issue is now in the hands of Bkerke and Vatican is important, and will be a test for all the 14th of March and 8th of March Christians.

I Say Batrak must pick the president after consulting everyone and have them stick to it.
Berri said he will support Batrak’s call, Hariri the same ..
As for HA, they will put themselves in the corner by critisizing Batrak’s choice.

So what are we waiting for ?

Just Pick a president wou khaleena nokhlass ba2a ..

صفير ابلغ لحود قرار بكركي والفاتيكان وضع يدهما على الانتخابات الرئاسية
نقل البطريرك الماروني الكاردينال مار نصرالله بطرس صفير في زيارة مفاجئة الى القصر الجمهوري في بعبدا موقف الكنيسة المارونية في لبنان وموقف القيادة الروحية الكاثوليكية في العالم من التطورات السياسية المتعلقة بانتخابات رئاسة الجمهورية المقبلة وملف المحكمة ذات الطابع الدولي لمحاكمة المتهمين بجريمة اغتيال الرئيس الحريري ورفاقه وجرائم الاغتيال ومحاولات الاغتيال التي شهدها لبنان منذ تشرين الأول 2004.

وكانت محاولات عدة قد تولاها وسطاء مقربون من لحود في محاولة لاحتواء موقف بكركي والحيلولة دون صدور المواقف التي صدرت عن مجلس المطارنة الموارنة الأخير لناحية رفض تعطيل انتخابات رئاسة الجمهورية أيا تكن الظروف.

وبحسب معلومات مقربين من بكركي فإن البطريرك صفير قرر القيام بزيارة الى بعبدا لإبلاغ لحود بجدية الخطوات التي قررت الكنيسة المارونية اعتمادها في ضوء التطورات السياسية الراهنة والاستحقاقات المرتقبة وبضروة عدم القيام بأي شيء يمكن أن يعيق وضعها موضع التنفيذ.

وقد شدد البطريرك صفير على ثلاثة عناوين:
1-وجوب اجراء الانتخابات الرئاسية في مواعيدها المحددة ووفقا للدستور، ورفض كل المحاولات الهادفة للتحايل على الدستور سواء باجتهادات على علاقة بتفسيره او بتطبيق بنوده لنسف الانتخابات وتعطيلها.
2-ضرورة أن يسهل رئيس الجمهورية اميل لحود عملية انتخاب الرئيس المقبل وتسليمه مقدرات السلطة، ورفض أي شكل من أشكال ازدواجية السلطة المتمثلة بطروحات تشكيل حكومة ثانية أو رفض الاعتراف بالرئيس الذي سوف يتم انتخابه.
3-رفض أي شكل من اشكال تعطيل مجلس النواب ومنعه من القيام بواجباته سواء من خلال الطروحات المتداولة حول اقدام الرئيس لحود على حله او عدم الاعتراف بشرعيته وبشرعية الخطوات التي سيلجأ اليها.
4-وجوب الانتهاء من ملف اقرار المحكمة ذات الطابع الدولي في اسرع وقت ممكن للتفرغ للملف الرئاسي. وقد كان البطريرك صفير واضحا في اعتباره انه اذا لم يتم اقرار المحكمة وفقا للفصل السادس فان اللجوء الى الفصل السابع من ميثاق الأمم المتحدة يصبح ضروريا.

وبحسب معلومات المطلعين على زيارة البطريرك صفير الى بعبدا، فإن رأس الكنيسة المارونية ذكر لحود بالرسالة التي سبق للبطريرك ان أرسلها الى رئيس الجمهورية مع المطران رولان ابو جوده في تشرين الثاني الماضي يطالبه فيها بالاستقالة من موقعه.

وشدد البطريرك صفير استطرادا على أن انتخابات رئاسية مبكرة ولو بقي الرئيس في موقعه حتى نهاية ولايته كمخرج يحفظ للحود ماء الوجه من شأنها أن تنفس الاحتقان وتساعد اللبنانيين على اختصار المسافات الزمنية وتلافي المزيد من التوترات والازمات السياسية والاقتصادية والمعيشية وتنعش موسم الاصطياف وتحول دون الحاق المزيد من الخسائر بالاقتصاد الوطني ومصالح اللبنانيين المقيمين والمغتربين.

وشدد البطريرك صفير في حديثه مع الرئيس لحود على أن هذه المواقف لم تعد فقط مواقف الكنيسة المارونية المحلية وانما باتت موقف الفاتيكان بعدما تبناها البابا يوحنا بولس الثاني واعطى توجيهاته الى الدوائر المعنية في الكرسي الرسولي للعمل بموجبها بعدما استمع الى رأي البطريرك صفير في التطورات خلال

Many blame me for critisizing all politicians here, for showing how worrying the situation is, how desperate our people are, well those are all facts to be honest and i cannot describe the situation as prosperous and not worrying when it is.

I cannot tell you everything is gonna be ok when it is not.

One thing i can tell you, is that i have been resisting the temptation to leave Lebanon for more than a year now, i tried to convince myself that i must leave this country, but something kept me from leaving everytime, either i would get a better job offer here, or i would change my mind at the last second. The only reasons that i had to leave were purely carreer-wise and financial, but those fortunatelly i was able to fix here.

I am staying in Lebanon for the time being, i dont care what happens, we survived a civil war and an Israeli war and 25 years of Syrian hegemony, we went to Anti-Syrian demonstrations, we achieved the Cedars Revolution, we cannot leave all this behind and leave, not to a bunch of rotten politicians ..

I stayed optimistic for so long, i kept faith in my country and my people, even though they didnt show anything to back this faith and hopes.

I am staying here, we should all stay here.

I must say the 2007 French elections have been the most interesting since years, and France is in my opinion making a right choice by voting for Sarkozy.

The latest polls after the debate that opposed him to Royal gave him a further advantage that reached almost 9 points which is a considerable advance over his opponent.

Segolene Royal showed incompetent during the debate, and even lost it and got nervous and started talking nonsense. Sarkozy on the other hand, stayed calm and blasted her gently ..

France is in need of a charismatic and pragmatic leader to face their current problems, and Europe is in need of a powerful France.

The campaign is over, tomorrow is the decisive day, lets just wait and see.

Here is an interesting article by Der Spiegel on the French elections entitled:

‘France’s Comeback as a Powerful Player in Europe’

I was watching yesterday the Sarkozy-Royal debate and it was sensational, a true political debate where each has to impress the voters ..

Both candidates tackled the slighest problems in France promising pragmatic solutions ( Sarkozy at least).

My question is :
Why cant Aoun & Geagea be called for a debate ?

We are sll sick of PRers and press interview and interviews, let the two men sit facing each others and debate about politics and everything, but in front of the camera and journlaists and the spectators who will finally have the chance to judge and critisize in a constructive way of course.

Guys, i am not here to babysit to be honest.
I urge you to show some manners in your replies and respect each others and i am addressing everyone here.

You are writing lengthy comments with very interesting opinions but then spoiling the whole thing by adding an insult or a bad word ..

I already posted concerning this issue and things got much better than before, and i expect things to get even better this time.

Thank you all.

I was reading the replies i got to the previous post i wrote on Armenians of Lebanon and to be honest i am very dissapointed even disgusted by some replies ..

Barely anyone understood the aim of my thread which was NOT directed towards the Armenian people, but the political parties !

“however the political parties that were founded never managed into integrating the Lebanese society, and kept distinguishing themselves as Armenians first then Lebanese”

This thinking applied by the political Armenian parties, of basically supporting whomever is in power is harming the Armenian people more than doing them good. It is essential that they integrate the society and consider Lebanon as their FIRST country

Is that so difficult to understand ??
Chou khass if there were Armenians in the LF or not ? chou khass if they fought for Kataeb or not ?

I know how patriotic were many Armenians enrolled in the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb, and many were in leading positions and the best men out there, and i can tell you stories about some of them as well ..

However this has NOTHING To do with what i wrote ..

I am talking about the political parties here whose political thought is dissapointing …

So Please do not take this as an insult to the Armenian people and read my post properly for God’s sake !

I will not post the pictures of the two dead victims, i saw them early this morning and they are disturbing. Some news mentioned the victims were tortured but in all cases, they were killed the same day they got kidnapped and their bodies have been lying for days, which explain how damaged their bodies were.

May they rest in peace and May God help their folks.

I was reading about the sit-in the FPMers organized to condemn the release of Boutros Afram ( who is not an LF), arrested for firing gunshots at FPM activists during the Black Tuesday that occured almost 3 months ago after the Opposition tried to block all roads leading to Beirut.

I want to ask you ya Mark a simple question ..

Was it worth it ?

Was it worth it getting paralyzed for life because of few thugs ?
Did you really serv your cause by the sacrifice you made ? What will you say to your children and grand children ?
“I got paralyzed when i was trying to burn tyres to block roads kirmel el General ?”

I was involved myself in a lot of student demonstrations during the Syrian hegemony, i was willing to risk my life to demonstrate against the invadors, willing to get beaten and arrested just to let them hear my voice.

We were hand in hand with the Aounists, shouting for Syrians to leave. We had a Cause, and we never did it cause our leaders asked us to ..

However, today i am not willing to risk getting bruised for any leader, i am not willing to debate politics to defend any of them, Syrians are out now, Aoun came back, Hakim was freed, they work for us now and they should be the ones paying ..

You could have got killed easily, like many others during those meaningless clashes, however you survived, and i hope you will learn from this very painful experience and most specifically from that event you guys held today that no one is worthy this ..

All those who read the news today forgot about you and George and Siham, they were too busy making jokes on Abbas el Hashem.

I offer you this as a brotherly advice, your priority as a Lebanese and as a young man is to secure your future, to think of urself before anyone else ..

Many died for Michel Aoun, they ended up being buried in a soccer field, others rotting in Syrian jails till now ( while he denies publically their presence), and many many others living poorly and without a job ..

I respect the fact that you like the guy, it is ur opinion and i respect it, but that last sentence u quoted is in my opinion wrong:
” “هيدي الكرسي يللي قعدوني عليها جماعة السلطة اشرف من كل الكراسي يللي قاعدين عليها ومتمسكين فيها”. “

The new generations should be the ones fighting to take over those seats, not to sit their leaders on them ..

I truly hope you will be able to recover from your handicap one day, and i condemn all those thugs who were shooting that day, either LFers, Fpmers or Marada or anyone … i condemn anyone who came out with guns, who thinks we can resolve our problems by killing and beating up each others ..

We are the future ya Mark, you and me and all those young people .. we should show our leaders the way, and not sacrifice ourselves to pave them the way to achieving their goals ..

Regards.

I posted two days ago about several definitions of terrorism and why is it that Hezbollah is a terrorist party.

It is true that things wont stop at the threshold of definitions and that one must support those definitions with facts to sort of materialize such a labeling.

Firstly i will try to answer lebanon_05’s questions which i believe deserve a lengthy answer. Hezbollah that started as an Islamic Revolution in Lebanon has turned into an Islamic Resistance before getting into politics and has known an impressive evolution throughout the years, however his goal is still the same and his methods are still ones of a terrorist party, with certain improvements.

Back to the questions asked:

Answer to 1#:Let me clarify first that Israel is my ennemy as much as it is Hezbollah’s ennemy, and that i refuse for any foreign country to invade 1 inch of Lebanese soil, and that the LF NEVER collaborated with Israel as they claim, however Syria & Palestine are also ennemies and have harmed us way more than Israelis did, and history and assasinations and testimonies prove me right.

You asked how started ? It is true that Israel had no right in occupying Palestine, however Palestinians fled their country instead of defending it, and honestly Arafat sold the Palestinian Cause since day1 and therefore i blame them for letting Israel get that far, and Israel has become a fact now, and unfortunatelly Palestine will never come back to what it was.

I do not wish to go on the Palestinian issue here, i am more interested in the Lebanese cause, in Lebanon that small country that was attacked first by Palestinians and then by Syrians, and then by Israelis who invaded us to get rid of Palestinian guerillas, and settled in the South to steal our water and create a buffer zone.

Do we have the right to resist ?? It is our sacred right.
Do we have the right to ally with an invador to kick another out out ?? Not at all and this is what Hezbollah did, Hezbollah invaded the South and did not free it, it confiscated the resistance for its own political purposes and exploited the Palestinian Cause to keep its arms while Palestinians were not allowed to use their weapons ..

You cannot fight Israel with a Pro-Syrian Pro-Iranian militia sending suicide bombers, i always believed we could have settled things diplomatically with Israel, but Syria didnt want that to happen and still doesnt.
I truly believe Israel nowadays and since few years does not have any ambition in invading us, it will only weaken its security and it has enough problems, Sharon was building a wall to close the borders and we could have easily signed a peace agreement and put UN troops on the frontiers ..
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I posted earlier asking who will strike first ?
Well Israel apparently is gonna be the one to strike first, at least according to several articles i wrote about an upcoming regional war.

Even though i highly doubt the US or Israel will go after such an insane hit, there are talks and even plans on how this operation will be executed in few days or weeks time.

How will the operation be executed ??

Rumors are spreading that Israel is stockpiling for an attack, it acquired 30 long-range F-15 from the US and bought more than 5000 bunker-busters, missiles that can penetrate up to 10 metres of earth and concrete.

Israel will take off with three squadrons of six F-15’s - fly over Iraq, and hit Iran’s three key facilities. The US is expected to provide satellite information and refueling as the Israeli jets exit.

Iran will see this as an attack by America, and will threaten to retaliate. Israel will launch a Sunburn 22, taking out a carrier, and Iran will get blamed.

You can read the rest of this disastrous scenario for the whole region on this link.

I will post later on on the Sunburn 22 missile which is the prime target of The Americans and Israelis added to the Nuclear installations in Iran.

The consequences of such a hit will be a retaliation from Iran and the straits of Hurmuz will be their first target to stop the flow of oil, and plunge the world market into a serious crisis.

Compliments from a good friend of mine in Qatar ..

The nature of the conflict btw the 14th and 8th of march teams started after the July war primarily between the Shiites and Sunnites, however it was turned into a Christian-Christian fight after the black Tuesday and nowadays i sense that Aoun & Geagea and the Christians in general are the problem for Hezbollah & Hariri and that any solution will require weakening one Christian side further.

The current government includes only 1 LF minister, while Aounists have none.
The LF will not accept having less ministers than Aoun in the ‘adjusted’ government and vice versa.

So both teams are increasing their speech levels and going to the extremes while Hariri and Berri are having dialogues.

Christians have put themselves in a losing position because of their behavior, mainly cause of Aoun’s behavior and his ‘agreement’ with Hezbollah that splitted the Christian community like no other agreement did.

Hakim has regained some of his popularity on the Christian level but the lack of initiatives and the few mistakes being done are keeping him on the same level as Aoun. I blame him for example for reaching low levels in some speeches, mainly when addressing Lahoud.

Al-Akhbar reported today that Geagea is uneased with the way discussions are going btw Hariri & Berri, i dont trust this paper a lot, but this says a lot about our position as Christians.

In Summary, i see it this way.
While Hariri,Jumblatt and Berri,Nasrallah are strenghening their positions, the Christian leaders are still divided and the Christian population is leaving.

… and has every right to be worried !

What is happening now is like the calmness before the storm, all politicians fortifying their strongholds, arming their men, raising their speeches and tensions.

What are we waiting for to dialogue again ?? The traffic of weapons is becoming so popular its insane, i hear everyday from friends about this guy who got a new Mp5 or Glocks for sale or M16 etc etc …

The old man always speaks wisely, but no one to listen ! The LF should back him up, not just in speeches but through actions ..

Read his article here.

A small favor from the 14th of march and 8th of march when organizing the demonstrations ..
Kindly ask the supporters to leave the martyrs’ statue alone and not let them climb and sit on their heads and backs and put a flag in every hole in their body.

Honestly its stupid and disrespectful !

This world is really amazing…

Yesterday as I listened to Monsignor  Tawk announcing the decisions of the Maronite Bishops meetings on TV, I was struck by the hypocrisy of the so called opposition figures and quite seriously I began to wonder if they believe that the general IQ of the entire Lebanese population is as low as that of their blind followers…

To recap the latest events: after the Dark Tuesday and Dreadful Thursday events, Aoun and Franjiyi, the two Christian figures of the Hezbollah lead opposition met together, and in a public ceremony, signed the “Bkerki Paper” which was an edict by his Holiness Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, Maronite Patriarch, calling amongst other things, upon the cessation of all hostilities between brothers of the same religion, calling on keeping the Christian areas far from the destructive methodology that the opposition is resorting to in order to oust the current government.

Once the paper signed, out came the so called “people who care for the Christian community” claiming left and right that the LF and the other Christian factions of 14^th March were avoiding the signature of this pact and they were evading all the responsibilities imparted upon them by the Bkerki call.

Many, quite unfortunately, fell for this propaganda, and failed to realize that it was nothing but a well orchestrated campaign that Aoun and Franjiyi had organized in order to regain some of the Christian street that their behaviors and alliances had scared away.

Now, at this point, I would like to ask Aoun and his company: since you are so jealous of the Christian interests in Lebanon and since you re so intent on respecting the Patriarch’s requests and making sure every one abides by them, how come you are selective in choosing what to take and what to reject from Bkerki???

Knowing the short term memory of some of my fellow Lebanese compatriots, I will not tax their minds with asking them to remember events which took place far back in time…

I will instead ask them to recall December of 2006…merely two months ago…beginning with Bkerki’s request to all the Christians NOT TO TAKE THE STREETS and NOT TO PARTICIPATE in the Hezbollah lead sit in that has, incidentally, been going on ever since until this very day…

If I recall correctly, Aoun did not feel very concerned by this call and his ally Franjiyi even went so far as to announce on Al Manar TV that the Patriarch was “aroused” or “excited” by all the mothers and widows of those who lost their lives and that was why he made his statement (those were the mothers and widows of the martyrs assassinated within the last 5 years…they had gone to the Patriarch to demand him to interfere in order to avoid a new inter-Christian clash, similar to the one of 1990).

Next I will move on to the second event which occurred, and that’s when Patriarch Sfeir sent one of the Maronite Bishops (I believe it was Monsignor Roland Abou Jawdeh) to President Lahoud, asking him to step down in light of all the events that had occurred and to try to defuse the stressed situation. Here again, I did not see Aoun rushing to make sure that the Patriarch’s request was abided. Not to mention that Aoun continues to support Lahoud being in the presidency as per his famous saying “Either I become president or Lahoud remains”.

In every single appearance of the Patriarch (take for instance the one on one interview May Chidiac had with him a couple of weeks back), he has explicitly criticized the sit ins that are crippling Down Town Beirut and has asked that these forms of protests be stopped since they are leading to no where and instead are causing great losses to everyone in the country…again, no sign of life from the general.

Lastly, yesterday’s call came, again criticizing and requesting an immediate halt to practices which were crippling the economy and harming the country…

OK…I guess it’s my right to ask here: why is the general so selective in his acceptance of Bkerki’s requests?

One can’t help but notice that when the going got tough for him on the popularity level,  especially after the bloody incidents that occurred on Tuesday January 23^rd 2007, and after his miserable attempts at diverting the attention to the so called Lebanese Forces militia (remember the famous Photoshop fakes anyone?), General Aoun resorted to playing the strictest sectarian card he had in his hands and that’s pretending to be Bkerki’s best pal…

Seriously, who is this guy trying to fool?

This really goes to prove that absolute power always corrupts absolutely…I guess all this blind following has gone to his head and made him think that the entire Lebanese population would be the same…

Sorry general…you messed up once again…will this be the last time??? judging by your past performances, I doubt it…

Trying to recover some of whats left of Aouns image (of course by smearing the Lebanese Forces image with empty allegations) the Aounist propaganda machine kicks out in full force…after the poorly doctored pictures Aoun was soo dumb to show in TV, there comes the mass mailers…

One such mail I got today was so blatantly biased and full of lies, that I could not resist replying to it…I will not post my reply for security reasons, but however, here’s what my friend N10452 had to say in light of the points raised in the mail

Below is the mail (points that were raised are in bold), along with the replies replies…

- do u know the past of each and every person and/or party member of 14
march?
Yes We know the past of every person and we know that those were pro-Syrians and after paying a very heavy price, realized that they cannot rule the country alone and they admitted their mistakes unlike others that have a ‘flawless’ history..
 
As for Hezbollah, he still needs a slap in the face to understand that …
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