INDEPENDENCE... WILL AND STRUGGLE

Independence is a wakefulness and will and a struggle which the Lebanese people seized sixty one years ago due to their sacrifices and pure blood which irrigated the Versants and the hills of Lebanon.
Decades have passed on the country's independence, filled with experiences and difficulties, and preserving it was the huge challenge which the army faced since that time starting from its firm belief in the essence of the Lebanese entity and its unique mission in this world. The army realized the amount of the enormous sacrifices and responsibilities laid upon it and vowed to God and to the people an oath which is more important than life, embodied by the caravans of martyrs which undertook the road of honor, sacrifice and loyalty... delighted, satisfied unaware of what destiny causes and embodied by the exploits and efforts of these men working silently, persevering in a race against time, devoting their lives and youth in serving their sacred mission.

Long decades witnessed many stages in which the country was many times at the crossroad of destiny, but the flame kept on glowing in the midst of fogs and storms heralding the arrival of a new dawn and the army remained in the imagination of its citizens the phoenix bird resuscitated from underneath the ashes, vibrating with hope, light and life. The military institution managed to overcome all the ordeals it faced, thanks to a national education firmly established in the conscience of its soldiers who believed in Lebanon as a final country to all its citizens and realized that it cannot continue as a pioneering example in its diverse civilization and culture unless it raised the principle of nationalism and set it as values and behavior in the lives of individuals and society.

In the sixty first memory of independence, the army renews its vow firmly committing itself to the values and principles on which it was raised and total allegiance to the country and ever giving will just like the cedars of its mountains which vanquished the most violent storms and the vicissitudes of time.

 THE ELEMENTS OF INDEPENDENCE

The Broad National Will:
The broad national will is considered one of the most important components on which the people rely on to gain the independence and preserving it and this will derive from the awareness of the different groups concerning their national identity which guarantees them the achievement of their goals and mutual aspirations in the present and in the future, and the Lebanese people have embodied this will throughout the old and recent history through their constant endeavor to free their country from the foreign armies which occupied its land successively, and gaining its desired independence. As such they struggled together against the ottoman occupation and later against the French mandate and gained independence in the year 1943. This will was also embodied in confronting the Israeli enemy since the establishment of its entity on the Palestinian land in 1948 and resisting its occupation of parts of the Lebanese territory in the invasions of 1978 and 1982 and was a bright symbol for the journey of liberation and vanquishing this enemy in the 25th of May 2000.

The unity of the land, people and institutions:
The existence of Lebanon as a country is conditioned by the unity of its land, people and institutions and therefore there can be no independence without this unity which was confirmed by history and the will of coexistence and the principles of the constitution. The Lebanese land is mentioned in the constitution and acknowledged internationally, and any partition of this land is a threat to the country in the essence of its existence. And as the people of Lebanon are those living in this country and abroad and the immigrants from all affiliations and regions, gathered by their Arabic Lebanese identity and their mutual history and cultural heritage and prospective aspirations, the government which is represented by the constitutional institutions is also a government for all and exercises its authorities in the name of the people and according to the democratic system. The formula of coexistence emanating from the recognition of the Lebanese people to their vital interests and their united destiny is one of the pillars of the existence and subsistence and is a natural result of a long history of interactions and ordeals. The painful events which Lebanon witnessed prove how much the Lebanese are holding on to this formula and to the association to a unified and final country for all its citizens, and that is what they expressed in the act of national reconciliation which was ratified in the city of Taef in 1989 and which stressed on the principles of the Lebanese entity's existence and in the forefront the unity of the land, the people and the institutions. Without these principles Lebanon can no longer Exist and any other different formula is not applicable whether on the community's level or on the level of the whole country. The government and the institutions:

The existence of the country in its different institutions symbolizes the will of coexistence between the citizens of the same country, joined together by land and history and the expression of their union is accomplished through the sovereignty of the state based on a constitution that indicates  its borders and flag and language and identity and the form of the regime and the order and the law.

The government assumes the governing of the people and managing its affairs and protecting its land and organizing the exploitation of its resources. It is thereby an essential pillar of the sovereign and independent country's existence and the army comes at the head of these institutions which form the government considering its basic mission as a protector of the country and what it represents in the conscience of the citizens being the symbol of the nation's sovereignty and independence. Thus this institution which gathers all the citizens from all the regions and affiliations and fuses them in a united national melting pot based on the high principles and values and the mutual goals of the society under the auspices of a proper training derived from the message of the military life and the sanctity of its principles, makes all those who rally around it an example of manhood and generosity and the constant readiness to sacrifice their lives to defend the country and its independence. The army is considered an example of the inclusive national institution which is based on two main and closely correlated principles.

The first principle manifests itself in the national loyalty which surpasses the narrow loyalties, and the second principle manifests itself in the solidarity and cooperation in order to achieve general goals and thus it largely contributes in assuring the general stability in the country not only because of the deterrent force that it represents, but because of its participation in clarifying and developing the concurrent national currents and directions in the society.

 THE DANGERS IMPENDING THE INDEPENDENCE AND THE MEANS OF CONFRONTING THEM

Zionism in its philosophical and ideological conceptions represent the most prominent danger on the Lebanese entity and the constituents of its existence because Israel has been since its establishment in the region, a source of wars and tragedies which Lebanon and the Arab countries endured for more than half a century and the horizons of a true peace are still lost considering the nature of the aggressive Zionist entity.

Hence, Israel is the only country in the united nations which did not conclusively trace its borders until this day because of its expansionary avidities and the mixture of the political, military and social concept based on the legend of "the promised land" and always tried by its different means to strike the Lebanese model, unique in its cultural and educational diversity and completely contradictory to the nature of its racial entity trying to raise the seeds of disunion between the Lebanese sects and rites and dividing the country into extremist quarreling petty states and describing the Lebanese society as an incoherent society where chaos prevails and unable to continue in conformity with the famous Zionist predicament which says that "The existence of Lebanon is a historic mistake".

The confrontation of this danger lies basically in preserving the sovereignty and  independence of Lebanon and this confrontation lies in stressing on the unity of the Lebanese people and consolidating the principle of the national affiliation and gathering around the institution of the state which emanates from the people's will and clinging to the national constants and at the forefront the unity of the path and destiny with the brother country Syria, and supporting the national resistance in its legitimate struggle against the Israeli occupation, and history has proven many times that the special relation between Lebanon and Syria is a source of strength and a safety value for the safety and stability in both countries and it has also proven that the resistance which is fortified with the support of the army and the gathering of the people around it is the right way to ward off the Israeli aggressions and to enable Lebanon to free its land and people and restore all of its stolen rights.

 THE ARMY AND THE INDEPENDENCE

The journey of the army with the independence started the day groups of Lebanese young men volunteered in the contingent of the orient which was created by the allies in the Arabic regions in 1916 as a way of national struggle and those men stated at that time two conditions in their volunteering contracts.

 The first condition was that they will only fight against the ottoman forces and the second was that they joined the allied forces in the aim of liberating Lebanon. And in 1918, the contingent of the orient included in its ranks the first brigade of the Lebanese army's brigades which is the brigade 23 and the formation of the brigades which helped the Lebanese and fought with them side by side against the forces of the mandate followed in succession and on the 29th of August and the 5th of September 1943, parlementary elections took place in Lebanon and a president of the republic was elected.

 Afterwards the parliament amended the constitutional clauses related to the mandate and in view of this fact the French authorities arrested the president of the republic and the prime minister and a number of ministers and deputies and confined them to the prison of Rashaya's citadel. Immediately after these developments, Lebanon witnessed a state of popular ebullition in the different regions and the streets and squares of the cities flamed with demonstrations the thing that forced the authorities of the mandate to eventually comply with the will of the Lebanese and to free the men of the independence, and declare the independence of Lebanon on the twenty second of November 1943 in its internationally acknowledged borders.

 The army faced since its youth many difficulties and challenges, especially after the establishment of the extorter Israeli entity in the Palestinian land in 1948 where it fought many heroic  battles with  this enemy and persisted in the immediate confrontation of its almost daily aggressions and attacks, offering hundreds of martyrs and wounded men on the altar of the country. The army also continued executing its internal missions in keeping the security and stability, sparing the country the dangers of many incidents in consecutive stages until the series of riots started in 1975 for many reasons and especially because of the repercussions of the Arabic-Israeli conflict on the Lebanese soil through the Israeli attempts to destroy the unity of the Lebanese people and the formula of coexistence, and solve the issue of the Palestinian refugees at the expense of Lebanon in such a manner that all this led to the absence of the united political decision of the government and therefore the absence of the army's role in its broad national concept and made the incidents continue for long years, threatening the country with disintegration and breakdown. Yet, these incidents and in spite of their severity never prevented the comrades of arms and destiny in the army from communicating and meeting, and the bet that the army will recover its role remained well established in the minds of the people, and that was the case in the early nineties immediately after ratifying the national reconciliation act which put an end to the absurd wars and the journey of rebuilding the army started, conducted at that time by his excellency the president of the republic general Emile Lahoud, and its approach continued and became firmly established when general Michel Sleiman took the command, and this journey leaned on three main pillars:  - Fixing the national constants and the military doctrine which derives its broad lines from the act of national reconciliation which distinguished between the friend and the enemy.

  -  Adapting the institutional approach at work since the standards of competence and productivity became the basis in recruiting and giving  the promotions and deployments and selections in the instructional sessions.
 -  Procuring the human resources and the material means: Where the command relied in achieving this goal on the principle of ensuring the necessary requirements without burdening the states' treasury with what it can not bear and in this framework, the cost of rebuilding the army never constituted a burden on the treasury and the expenditures were and still are a part of the credits allocated in the budget without external or internal loans, moreover most of the equipments are donations handed over by neighboring and friendly states or bought with symbolic prices.

 CONSOLIDATING THE SECURITY AND STABILITY INSIDE THE COUNTRY AND CONFRONTING THE ENEMY

According to the cabinet's commissioning, date 15/1/1991, the army started executing the missions of keeping security in the different lebanese regions and still is, based on a number of principles and at the forefront:

 - The army is an institution which obeys the law and serves it.
 - The observance of the principle of justice and equality between all the Lebanese people.
 - Firmness, swiftness and precision in executing the missions and showing no negligence regarding any security violator. And thus the army managed to ensure an atmosphere of security and stability and therefore guaranteed for all the citizens the practice of their rights and duties in the different national, social, cultural and athletic occasions. The price to be paid was the alertness and the efforts and sacrifices of the soldiers in many stages. The command has confirmed more than once that the security stability in the country is a sacred element because it constitutes the essential pillar of the country's rise and subsistence, and the base of the resistance against the Israeli occupation and without it no democracy and freedom can rise and no social justice can be achieved and no economy can flourish.

In this framework, the decision was fast and firm in facing the security violations seeking to stimulate disturbances and the attempts of espionage and sabotage executed by guerillas related to Israel, and in other attempts which aimed to damage the security and stability in the different regions. In addition to that, the army has always assisted the internal security forces in fighting crime and eradicating the social epidemics and executing the different missions which fall within its competence.

Upon the army's execution of its security missions inside the country, the command also decided to deploy around half of the army's troops in the main field of confrontation with the Israeli enemy in the south and the west Bekaa, and  in spite of the incompetence in the balance of forces the army defended the country and confronted the enemy's aggressions with all the available means and resources especially during the operation of "Settlement" in 1993 and the operation of "the grapes of fury" in 1996 and Ansariyah and Arabsalim in 1997 offering many martyrs in these confrontations.

The army has always stood by the villagers in the villages close to the confrontation lines, helping them with the aim of consolidating their steadfastness and their clinging to their homes and lands and thus a story of steadfastness and resistance which horrified the imagination of the enemy and destroyed its tyranny and arrogance emerged.

 THE ARMY AND THE DEVELOPMENT

In addition to the defensive and security missions executed, the army assumes a prominent role in the fields of multidimensional development. Along with the beginning of the journey of raising the country and until this day,  the army has persisted in participating efficiently in the operation of constructing and building what the war has destroyed and dusting off the negligence and oblivion which affected all the regions. In this framework, the activities of the deployed army units were divided between participating in the habilitation of the infrastructure like the water and electricity networks and building roads in the regions where the displaced returned and habilitating the touristic sites and launching campaigns to clean the beaches, and extinguishing fires and forestation operations and supporting some of the public services with the expertise and means and human resources, and helping the institutions of the civil society and the artistic, cultural and social organizations in addition to the operations of evacuation and rescuing in case of natural disasters and urgent incidents.

For example, and during this year, the army units executed hundreds of development missions for instance:
 - Evacuation and rescuing operations of the residents of villages and towns which were besieged by floods and snow during the winter season and offering them food and medical supplies especially in the barren mountains of Akkar and Dannieh and the heights of Kesrouan and in Baalbeckة and the use of military helicopters in executing some of these missions
 -  Participating in opening the disconnected mountainous roads due to snow and removing the landslides and rescuing the besieged citizens and lightening the snow off the cedar trees' branches in Becharry.
 -  Estimating the damages resulting from the natural factors according to the cabinet's commissioning.
 -  Spraying insecticides over the plains of wheat in the Bekaa using military helicopters to fight the insect of Sona, and also in spraying the plains of olive in Koura and the cedars of Tannourine and Barouk.
 -  The execution of land survey operations of the areas cultivated with sugar beet in the Bekaa by specialized committees.
 -  Participating in the habilitation of the monumental forts in Jbeil and Baalbeck and Tripoli and Arnoun.
 -  Habilitating and cleaning the bushes of: Jezzine - Bkasin - Kaytoula - kfarhazir - Wadi qannoubine - Diddeh - Gharifeh.
 -  The convent of St Maroun (Innaya) - Msayleh - Zifta - Baalbeck and the gardens of Beirut and the park of Maad Village and the reserve of Bintael.
- Assisting the civil defense with all the available means with the aim of he extinguishing fires in all the Lebanese territory.
- Participating in the campaign of the big blue to clean the Lebanese shore stretching between Tyre and Arida.
 -  The participation of a unit of navy seals backed with a group of divers in a large campaign of habilitation of the Assi River.
 - Executing the day of the forest in all the Lebanese regions which included habilitating the bushes and forests and the cautioning campaigns regarding the dangers of mines and the causes of fire, and the ways to extinguishing them.
 - The initiative of the army commander to transport and distribute apples from all the Lebanese regions to Greater Beirut in order to sell it to the citizens and the army's purchase of the remaining quantity.
 - The participation of army doctors and nurses in the vaccination campaign against poliomyelitis in many regions and especially the remote ones.
 -  The forestation activities in all the mouhafazats.
 -  Removing the violations on the river banks and calculating the quantities of gravel and sand in the stone and sand quarries and escorting the employees of the electricity company of Lebanon and protecting them while executing their duties according to a cabinet's commissioning.
 - Cleaning and habilitating the lake of Karaoun and removing the residues and rubbish using special boats and equipments.
 -  Executing a mission of search and rescue outside the Lebanese territories in search of the Lebanese victims who passed away after their plane crashed in Kotono - Africa and the performance of the soldiers was praised by the local and foreign authorities.In another domain, related to both security and development and represented by the problem of mines, the army attached great importance to this problem considering its negative effects on the citizens' lives and to the operation of reconstruction and development in the country, and this problem started by the end of the internal incidents in 1990 and exacerbated immediately after the Israeli enemy was vanquished in May of the year 2000 since the Lebanese witnessed another kind of occupation represented by the existence of 550.000 mines which the Israeli enemy left behind in the regions of the South and West Bekaa.The army managed, with the participation of the engineering units in the brother Syrian arab army and specialized teams from friendly countries and international non-governmental organizations, until 1/10/2004 to execute the following:
 -  Cleaning an area of 28.5 km2 out of 137 km2
 -  Removing and detonating:150.000 anti vehicle and anti individual mines out of 550.000 mines.
 -  Removing and detonating: 81.000 unexploded objects.On the other hand, the national demining office carries on with the National committee of Cautioning against the dangers of mines, in executing the cautioning and guidance campaigns in all the Lebanese regions where the exerted efforts led to a big decrease in the number of causalities from 120 casualty in the year 2000 to 10 casualties in the year 2004.

 THE RESOLUTION 1559

In the slime of what is happening in our Arabic region, and under the auspices of the failure of the political solutions aiming to find a solution to the Arabic - Israeli conflict because of Israel's obstinacy and refusing to return to the table of negotiations and giving free rein to the threats against Lebanon and Syria by its leaders, and intensifying its aerial violations of the Lebanese territories' sanctity and executing terrorist acts and assassination operations against the leaders of the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance in both countries. In this context the resolution 1559 issued by the security council on 3/9/2004 with all its ambiguity and contradictions, is considered an unconventional precedent in the history of international relations, constituting an interference in the sovereignty and independence of Lebanon. The resolution stated the following:

 -  The withdrawal of the foreign forces from Lebanon.
 -  Disarming the Lebanese and foreign guerillas.-
 -  Expanding the government's authority on all the Lebanese territories.And the position of the Lebanese government dealt with the following issues:
 -  The only foreign forces existing in Lebanon are the Israeli forces which occupy the farms of Shebaa. Whereas the Syrian forces are friendly Arab forces which entered Lebanon according to the Lebanese government's demand and their existence is regulated by the convention of brotherhood and coordination and cooperation between Lebanon and Syria and a copy of this convention was submitted to the united states at that time. -  And in this context the Syrian forces carried out five redeployment operations in the Lebanese regions according to the resolution of the mutual military committee of the two brother armies.
 -  An immediate withdrawal of the Syrian Arab forces according to the security council's resolution number 1559 cannot be executed however the redeployment operations are carried out in cooperation between the two countries and specifically in the framework of the high military committee. The national resistance which is confronting the Israeli occupation is not a guerilla and it has no security role inside the country and its activities are restricted to facing the Israeli enemy. This resistance led to the withdrawal of the enemy from the bigger part of our occupied land and is still persistent to free the farms of Shebaa. Preserving this resistance constitutes a Lebanese strategic interest with the aim of relating the struggle with the enemy and regain all the Lebanese legitimate rights achieving and at the forefront the withdrawal of Israel from the farms of Shebaa and the return of the refugees to their land.
 -  As for the Palestinian presence in the camps in all its known considerations is resultant from the practices of Israel which expulsed the Palestinians and the resort of a part of them to Lebanon, and most of them live in refugee camps fostered by the United Nations and the UNRWA organization. The Palestinians are claiming the right of return according to the international resolutions and especially the resolution number 194. In this framework the government preserved their particularities inside the camps which the army encircles and does not allow the traffic of arms outside of it and the army offered many martyrs and exerted great efforts to control the situation.
 -  The Lebanese who are familiar with the ruthless ordeals that the country witnessed during a long period of time paid its price with a huge flood of blood and losses of properties, and knew the ways to escape from the absurd wars and the others' conflicts on their land, and realized the importance of the return of security and stability and prosperity to the country, are those who are fully aware of what serves their interests and guarantees and preserves the independence and sovereignty of their country away from the suspicious adventures which has proven their barrenness, and all the attempts in this field constitute the best evidence.

 FACING THE CURRENT CHALLENGES

The power of the country manifests itself in its most eminent meaning through the union of its citizens and the crossing of their hopes and anticipations in the framework of a proper and extensive national vision which guarantees the future of their generations and this requires a deep wakefulness from all the parties and a complete awareness of the fact and to understand them and look down upon the narrow interests and present calculations and in all cases, the freedom which Lebanon enjoys should not be taken advantage off, despite being a sacred right guaranteed by the constitution and protected by the laws in addition to the variety and diversity of opinions in an atmosphere of freedom and used as an instrument to allow chaos to infiltrate into the culture of the Lebanese society and destroy its achievements and drown the country in a sea of contradictions and sharp divisions which will negatively affect the  general stability in the country and the practice of freedom itself.Facing the current stage requires more resistance and persistence in our constants and strategic choices, and the army which was entrusted with the independence and sovereignty and the honor of defending its land and safeguarding its security and stability, realizes perfectly the criticality of the stage and the amount of pressure pursuing Lebanon, but in return, the army also realizes that the firmness of the national decision based on the power of the right and the unity of the Lebanese people and their gathering around their government and institutions and in the forefront the army, are the elements of power capable of facing all the challenges and threats which the country is facing, and the confirms once again that it will not allow the clock to turn backwards and it will not tolerate security violations under any slogan and whatever the circumstances were and will remain in its natural position, confronting the plans of the Israeli enemy and its potential aggressions and putting an end to riot before it starts, ready to exert all the sacrifices to preserve the path of civil peace and to defend the independence and the sanctity of its land and the dignity of its people.

 SPRING TIME OF THE COUNTRY

Yesterday and today, these man are still the same. They proceed on the road of honor, sacrifice and loyalty with steady steps and proud heads, loyal to the sacrifices of their devoted martyrs' blood, guardians of their inveterate peoples' trust, conscious to their great responsibilities, realizing the amount of challenges and difficulties awaiting them, but they are also sure that they are creating the strength of persistence with their solid faith and thus the spring time of the country shall regenerate and independence shall be safeguarded...