Delusions Versus Reality
By: Elias Bejjani
LCCC Media Chairman
11/4/03

The patriotic recommendations of the Los Anglos Maronite Conference and the remarkable success of the Syria Accountability Act in the US last year have led the Syrian regime to instruct its Lebanese-installed officials, politicians and clergymen to wage a war of hypocrisy, through the media and the judiciary, against Lebanon's Diaspora activists. These known bootlickers and hired mouthpieces allege that the Lebanese should not be betting on the US, nor should they be playing its regional political games. These thugs shamelessly advocate for an unconditional Lebanese subservience to the Syrian occupation and its annexation of its freedom and decision-making. In short, a strategy of willful slavery.

In reality, there is no betting or gambling.  There is only transparency, a logical and wise reading of the pre- and post-September 11 terror events, coupled with an active and intelligent strive by a number of Lebanese Diaspora individuals and organizations, in the press and in academia, who continue to work to change American foreign policy towards Lebanon.  It was that policy that sacrificed Lebanon's independence and sovereignty in 1990 and handed over the only democracy in the so-called Arab world to the Stalinist Syrian regime.

Those who are intentionally blind and deaf to the "global world" we live in after the fall of the communist USSR should have learned by now that the latest dramatic changes in the region refute their Syrian-imported arguments. They should know that American and Western strategy planners have finally and irreversibly recognized that American sponsorship and nurturing of Arab and Mid-Eastern totalitarian monarchies and theocracies has failed to bring about security for America. Instead, these regimes have become a serious threat to America and world stability.

The US administration kept a blind eye for many years on the horrible human atrocities committed by regimes it protected against their own people, especially the Syrian and Saudi dictatorships. The outcome of this American deliberate indifference has cultivated an awkward fanatic mentality that produced the most notorious and organized terrorist groups the world has known such as Al-Qaeda. These groups did not only terrorize their own people, but have made the entire Western world an arena for their hatred, fanaticism, destruction, and crime.

The shock of September 11, 2001 was the detonator that awakened US and Western societies from their dormancy state. It made them recognize that the regimes they were protecting are fully responsible for the creation of, and nurturing of ongoing criminal activity by, all the terrorist groups without exception. It was also recognized that the information, intelligence and military services that these regimes were offering to the US in the area of terrorism are a sword with two edges.

As an example, the Stalinist Syrian regime that brutally massacred the Sunni Moslem Brotherhood organization, or that harbored and then betrayed the notorious Carlos and the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, is the same regime that offered the US precious information on Bin Laden's Al Qaeda and helped the CIA in this domain. This same regime still harbors, nurtures, finances and manipulates more than a dozen well-organized fanatic groups listed by the US and Canada as terrorist groups. These groups see in the US as "The Great Satan".

This kind of double standard previously applied by American administrations has proved that there cannot be both acceptable and non-acceptable forms of terrorism.  There is but one kind of destructive terrorism that should be eradicated worldwide, beginning with the regimes that harbors it. Accordingly, terrorism is not limited to groups and organizations, but extends to state-level trends, mentality and practice. The Stalinist Syrian Baathist regime is a perfect example in this field.

Based on this striking reality, Lebanese Diaspora activists have actively advocated at all levels of government, media, and academia of the US, Canada, Australia and Europe for a new policy towards occupied Lebanon, and for a deterrent approach towards terrorist states like Syria. The enormous support of the "Syria Accountability Act" by US legislators in both houses has been extremely encouraging, although this Act is not passed yet. There is no doubt that US policy is changing in regards to the Syrian occupation for Lebanon. All the latest American official statements have been in support for an independent, sovereign Lebanon that is free from foreign forces.

As freedom activist Mr. Elias Zoghbi said last month in an interview to Australian radio station "Marhaba Lubnan":

"There will be no Noah for the salvation of Syria. The Stalinist Syrian regime and all similar totalitarian regimes can't be saved. However, there will be a Lebanese Noah, a salvation mechanism for Lebanon. Lebanon and the Lebanese have all the needed potentials and qualifications to rebuild a free, democratic, multi-cultural country that honors human rights and champions tolerance. Lebanon will reclaim its role model as a peaceful society where civilizations can integrate and not clash".

Meanwhile, the free Lebanon that patriotic Lebanese dream of will not be a reality with the kind of politicians and officials that have been installed in power by the Syrian occupier since 1990.  These thugs can't give what they don't have. They can't give dignity, integrity, patriotism, altruism and faith.  A future Lebanon will be rebuilt by its youth, its courageous patriotic university students, and all other educated and hard-working Lebanese who believe in the 10,452 km2 doctrine.

Accordingly, we strongly believe that the war shock in Iraq was badly needed for all Middle Eastern countries in a bid to put an end to a paralyzed civilization that has been producing regimes of dictatorships, totalitarianism, fanaticism and slavery, similar to the one oppressing the Syrian people and occupying Lebanon today.

Lebanese activists in Diaspora are not betting on the US. They are only trying to change its policy towards Lebanon. America's previous policies that okayed and blessed the Syrian occupation of Lebanon favored the Middle East regimes and ignored their people. These policies are now in a process of change and re-assessment. All recent signals from American officials indicate that a new positive policy towards Lebanon is in the making. Hopefully this new approach and understanding will help the Lebanese people rid themselves of their oppressive regime and the Stalinist Syrian occupation that have hijacked Lebanon for many decades.
Long Live Freedom