Joseph Aoun and Nawwaf Salam Already Losing Credibility

Throughout the history of Lebanese politics post 1970s, inertia and fear have dominated. Because of fear of alienating this party or this sect, every decision takes time and endless negotiations, only to end in half ass solutions that never resolve the fundamental issues.

After sending the country on steroids with his swearing-in speech (in which he promised everything the Lebanese were deprived of for the past 50 years by terrorist organizations like the PLO and Hezbollah and their Saudi, Kuwaiti, Syrian, Iranian, Egyptian bosses), we are now watching President Joseph Aoun and his appointed Prime Minister Nawwaf Salam slowly begin to sink in the cesspool of trying to please everyone and trying not to upset anyone...a familiar pattern we've gotten accustomed to over the past 50 years of mismanagement and decline.

The upsetting thing is that Aoun and Salam are trying to appease the criminal terrorists of  Hezbollah and Amal - who have assassinated, bombed, kidnapped, murdered, bullied, and drawn the country into endless wars that they always lost. The reason why Aoun and Salam are now in power is BECAUSE of the crushing defeat of Hezbollah and Amal in their stupid war against Israel. So why even bother to try and appease losers?

Is Aoun afraid of a confrontation between the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah? Israel has already done three-quarters of the job by destroying the missiles and large weapons caches, and Hezbollah is on its last breath, cut off from its Iranian umbilical cord and deprived of its strategic depth in Syria. Hezbollah retains small arms and a terror infrastructure which it can resurrect with assassinations and bombings. The Lebanese army, one hopes, should be able to handle the remaining terror infrastructure with which Hezbollah continues to terrorize the country. But should Aoun and Salam also be fearful and be terrorized by the filth of Hezbollah and Amal? Why take on difficult jobs (president and prime minister) if you end up chickening out at the first obstacle?

So what if there is a confrontation between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Hezbollah if the latter's "might" has been circumcized down to a filthy backstreet militia? What is the point of having an army that doesn't even dare oppose seditious terrorist foreign-affiliated militias and terrorist organizations that have been reduced to a criminal gang?

Hezbollah continues to challenge the state with public defiance and demonstrations of bullying sectarian practices: The Christians have welcomed the pro-Hezbollah Shiite refugees escaping Israeli barbarity in the south. They've taken them in their homes, their schools, their churches and did not kick them when they were down. They respected their dignity and their fellowship as citizens. What do the Christians get in return? Massive bullying invasions of their neighborhoods by Shiite scumbags riding their mini-motorcycles and flying the flags of the losers of Hezbollah and Amal.

The Lebanese people are keeping a tally of the insults they see coming from the losers and their attacks on the state. But the capital of goodwill expressed by the vast majority of the Lebanese toward Aoun and Salam is beginning to fizzle out at the sight of ineptitude, fearfulness and endless meanderings as opposed to firm and difficult decision-making.

If Aoun and Salam accept the conditions of Hezbollah and Amal - namely to appoint their own man at the Ministry of Finance so as to keep control of the drawstrings of the money purse that is likely to see a huge influx of aid for reconstruction - they would have lost the trust of the Lebanese people and have essentially joined the ranks of the corrupt and yellow-bellied traditional leadership. At the very least, Aoun and Salam should go ahead and appoint whatever government they see fit and let Hezbollah and Amal go to their rat corner and sulk. Enough is enough.

As they say in Lebanese, the time has come to "كسور الجرة" - smash the jar - and get it over with. The iron is still hot. Time to strike. The Lebanese people can put up with one more domestic war to finally bring a permanent end to the torment of the past 50 years, and they stand behind daring leadership, not some soft-bellied bootlickers who want to be nice to every criminal asshole with a gun.