Amidst a wave of a post war rush by some neighboring countries to score cheap points at the expense of the Lebanese sacrifices, we were entertained , a couple of days ago, by the Syrian president giving a speech in front of an audience of so called Arab journalists…

Forty five minutes of spaghetti rhetoric and pseudo logic connoted by blatant falsifications of history. If anything, the speech demonstrated the truth of a famous phrase said by Albert Einstein about the limits of the universe and the infinity of certain aspects of human behavior.

The first impression the viewer gets is that he is watching a show put up by a child apprentice magician who has picked up a couple of tricks and is performing in front of an audience of adults who are too keen not to show any signs of boredom and pretend to follow him so as not to deepen his personality complexes.

I couldn’t help but recall famous words said almost fourteen years ago by Dr Samir Geagea on the occasion of the LF Martyrs’ day:

“And they position themselves as judges of history to prosecute the innocent and clear the enemy of all charges”…

I will not bore the reader by diving into an analysis of his speech as it would be more in the area of psychoanalysis than political study. However, it is my duty as a Lebanese citizen, to point out certain facts that Mr Assad seems to have omitted if not altogether forgotten in his frenzy.

I wish to remind his Excellency that:

• It was through an Americano-Israeli green light that his father was permitted to enter Lebanon with his troops in 1976 with a mission of disarming and dismantling the Palestinian factions that were active on the Lebanese territory at the time. So who is more criminal in this case? A group of people defending their lands against terrorist organizations who are abusing them or a coutry that pretends to defend the Palestinian cause and is willing to sacrifice it in order to gain a foothold in a neighbouring country?
• It was with an Israeli green light that his fighter planes were allowed, for the first time in nearly twenty years I must add, to fly over the Christian enclave and bombard it , thus opening the way for the Syrian troops to march in and occupy the land. Was this not a form of collaboration???
• It is thanks to Israel that the Assad regime is still on the Syrian throne, when it was logical that USA would be targeting them after Saddam. Israel feared that toppling Assad could open the way for Islamic Fundamentalists to come to power and this might cause a reopening of the Golan Heights fronts, which by the way were kept quiet through an under the table deal between Israel and the Syrian regime ever since 1973. And yet, we are surprised to hear him accusing the 14th of MArch group of being Israeli products…
• Mr Assad’s regime harbors or assists most of the terrorist in the region from Al Qaeda all the way to Hamas (who in an ironic way proclaim to be freedom fighters). They are very keen on exporting these messengers of hate, death and destruction to the entire world, more precisely the to the arab world that Mr. Assad claims to have so much love for, killing arab women and children, in order to bring it “Liberation”. Yet one finds it pretty strange that Syria being amongst the countries with the most land occupied by Israel has not lifted a finger to liberate those lands by itself.  

Another thing to be said is that I find it quite ironic that Mr. Assad should be talking about resistance and handing out advices and theories about freedom and democracy when his regime is well known for brutally silencing anyone who dares approach these subjects.

The gist of this speech could be summarized by the following: Syria is doing all it can to break out of the isolation it has been cornered in ever since the assassination of PM Hariri in February 2005 and their forced exit from Lebanon. It wants desesperately to regain its old position as a key player in the region, and is even ready to settle for any lower role, because frankly speaking, this regime is built on under the table deals and shady interventions as well as living off the goods of another country such as Lebanon. Without such possibilities, the Syrian regime has no means to breath and would slowly be strangled to death. But I guess Mr. Assad got the reply of the international community through the words of the USA ambassador to the UN Mr. John Bolton who said about the speech: “Meaningless words”.

In conclusion I wish to say that I was very proud of the reactions that came from the Lebanese people and politicians from all the spectrum of the political rainbow in the country. These reactions are enough to make one proud of being a Lebanese in times like this.