Dear General Aoun,

Firstly, allow me to apologize for allowing myself, a simple citizen, to breach all the protocols and rules of etiquette and address you through this letter. But I figured you being the head of a democratic party, and after all democracy means the power of the people (demos = people, cratos = power), you would accept those lines with an open mind, and possibly give them some thought.

You might be asking yourself why a known Lebanese Forces supporter is writing you this letter, but then do you not represent seventy five percent of the Lebanese Christians? Are you not a candidate for the Lebanese presidency?

Like in any democratic country, I believe it is my right to ask the person who intends to represent me in front of the world, a few questions, to demand from him some clarifications. 

As the father of two children, and as a person that aims to live in this country as a free man, free to invest and free to reap the fruits of my investment, I have many fears and I guess you are the best person to answer my fears as to the future of this country for the Lebanese and more specifically for the Christians.

I intend to voice, through those lines, my concerns, and they are many, General.

Clarifications and questions more specifically relating to your policies, your decisions, your goals, both short and long term, and finally your plans for this country.

Firstly I will begin with a couple of observations…If we travel back in time, back to 1988 when, as an interim prime minister, you assumed control of the eastern section of Beirut, more commonly known as the Christian enclave. Your first major move was to declare what is today known as the Liberation war. A very important move, in the sense it was aiming at recovering sovereignty, despite the warnings of your “partners in arms” back then, the Lebanese Forces, that the logistics on hand at the time were not favorable for such an engagement. Many supported you in this move since many saw it necessary, after years of civil war, to regain freedom and liberty. Your motto at the time was “Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence”, a very noble one I must say.

The war, unfortunately turned out to be a grave mistake since it brought destruction and death upon the people who you were responsible for, and it did not achieve its stated goals.

Your next decision was to eliminate all militias from the area, and give control to the Lebanese army. The only active militia at the time was the Lebanese Forces, and they were assisting you in your Liberation war, that was, by the way, still raging.

This decision was also very important since many people were fed up with the lack of law, with some of the wrong doings that some militiamen were committing.

But here again the timing was wrong. Nevertheless, you went on under the excuse that there could be no weapons in the hands of anyone outside of the regular army, and that the presence of an armed militia greatly undermined the solidification of the government.

In both occurrences, your stated purposes and reasons were legal as well as noble. In both cases, you were faced with failure.

In 1990, Syrian troops invaded the region under your control, and, you sought refuge in a foreign country that opened its doors for you and provided you refuge and protection, namely France, leaving behind your army to be slaughtered or taken to Syrian prisons.

You stayed in exile for fifteen years, years through which, not one day passed without you calling for an end to Syrian occupation, not one day passed without the members of your political movement being subjected to harassment, threats and worse, imprisonment at the hands of the Syrian controlled government.

To cut a long story short, in 2005, after the murder of PM Hariri, a large wave of protests swept the country, and, for the first time in many years, the Lebanese got together, putting aside religious and political differences, to ask the Syrian invader to leave. This was the Revolution of the Cedars. In parallel, and in your place of exile, you met with two key members of the Syrian puppet government, namely Michel El Murr, a corrupt feudal leader (who by the way was directly responsible for the jailing and abuse of your party members during the famous August 7^th demos that were calling for an end to Syrian occupation) and Emile Emile Lahoud, the son of the puppet president.

This was shortly followed by your declaration that you would be returning to Lebanon. And so you did. Pure coincidence?

Upon your arrival, you declared war on the members of the Cedars Revolution, commonly known as the March 14^th Alliance. You accused them of corruption, and stated your intentions of carrying out audits and render them accountable for their actions during the years they had been in power.

Once again a very important move, very crucial and noble, since, in a country like Lebanon, very few politicians kept a clean profile, yet the timing was once again wrong. Those were the only people that were speaking against the Syrian occupation, and you were undermining their movement, casting a shadow of doubt on them. This caused a break in the movement’s popularity as many of your followers pulled out, in a time where Syria’s influence was still very strong. There were still acts of violence being perpetrated, places being targeted by bombs, key leaders and journalists, all from the March 14^th alliance were being assassinated, and there was a great need for a government to establish order in the country. Your actions, although unquestionable in terms of nationalism and patriotism, were greatly hindering the formation of this government.

Overnight, you allied yourself with the remnants of the Syrian occupation. Through this alliance, you provided them with cover and allowed them to resurface to light after they had began to dwindle and were keeping a low profile.

The main action you performed, was the signature of the famous “paper of understanding” in February 2006 with Hezbollah, an armed faction with questionable loyalties to Syria and Iran, and that you yourself had described as terrorist only a year back. This paper allowed the Hezeb to remain active by giving it the much needed Christian coverage.

You changed your political speech to consider that Syria was no longer the enemy and you made certain to point out to your followers that the real enemy were their fellow countrymen in the March 14^th Alliance.

You resisted all attempts to overthrow the last vestiges of the Syrian occupation, namely the puppet president Emile Lahoud, a person who you yourself described as an incapable puppet, since you knew him from your days as the army commander in chief, and all your actions were geared towards hindering the governmental process through accusations, boycotts and other “democratic” means.

In the parliamentary elections of 2005, you allied yourself with the very people you had been condemning throughout your years of exile, and people who were the icons of corruption, feudalism and deceit.

You publicly denounced the UN Resolution 1559 that you yourself had been claiming in the past to be the main key player in its birth.

France, the country that had provided you with a secure asylum, and granted you all the luxury and benefits that suit your rank and position, was rewarded by you turning your back onto it, to go in the opposite direction, namely Iran and Syria.

In the name of “National Unity”, you actively resisted the disarmament of Hezbollah, claiming that their right to bear arms outside of the regular army was a legal one since there were a few square kilometers of the country that were still under Israeli occupation.

Your last action was to back Hezbollah up in their latest action, albeit the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers which brought upon Lebanon a retaliation never before seen in terms of destructiveness and savagism.

Now, in light of all the above contradicting facts, please tell me General Aoun, how am I, as a Lebanese Christian Citizen, to trust your actions?

How am I to know in what direction you plan to take me?

How am I to explain the discrepancies in your stances, as documented by the different press releases your party has provided over the years??

How am I to know that in the event you should ascend to power, you will not, as the captain of the proverbial boat you once claimed to be while hiding in your bunker in the Presidential Palace during the Syrian onslaught, that you will be able to guide the country through the troubled waters and that you will not abandon ship at the first sign of danger to seek refuge in some foreign embassy?

Thank you.