Nahr al Bared, just a small vicory

Nahr al-Bared means in Arabic “Cold River”. The camp has been under tense hot fighting from both sides. It has been the stream of blood on both sides. The fact that it took three months for an area to be cleansed of fighters, not possessing heavy weapons but guns and weapons shows the fragility of the Lebanese army, that couldn’t deal swiftly with a militia let alone an invading army. But historically, the Lebanese army lost military standards after the civil war from 1975 to 1991 and the occupation of Syria of Lebanon which became the army of the country.

What was puzzling in this situation was Hezbullah which didn’t leap to the help of the Lebanese army. This can be explained by the tacit or the explicit support of Hezbullah for extremist Islamists belonging to Al-Qaeda. This contradicts its claim of not siding with this organisation. It also shows that Lebanon in terms of defence is a paralysed country without foreign help. Without the help of the USA and some Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar Lebanon would have become in the grip of militias mainly Hezbullah and the defeated Fatah al-Islam if its army was left to fight fierce multinational resistant militia for which life and death are the same.

Lebanon, as it seems, is doomed to remain an international battleground where proxy wars are fought and an open gate for those seeking to destabilize the region.
Peace has returned to a portion to Lebanon. But the country is far from being politically stable as long as there are sectarian factions seeking to influence the events. The fact that Lebanon doesn’t have an effective national government is a sign that Lebanon is still politically in tatters. There is only political wrangling creating a split between the president, the government and Hezbullah is an indication that Lebanon is one of the smallest countries in the world but with the most complicated problems that should be solved within and not by foreign antagonist powers like the USA and Syria.