Introduction

In the 66th Anniversary of Independence, the Lebanese hold fast to their glorious history, flipping its bright pages and going back in memory to that crucial stage that marked down the day Lebanon liberated itself from tutelage and subordination and roamed free to the horizon of freedom and sovereignty when the Lebanese citizens rushed united, side by side with their Army, to confront the mandatory authorities.

Thus, they achieved what they set out to do since modern Lebanon saw the light as a country endowed with a respectable standing in the world, a homeland for free men, a destination for the persecuted and an oasis for cultural, intellectual and religious diversity.
Throughout all the independence years, the Army persisted in conducting its great national missions on the defensive, security and development levels and remained steadfast in front of challenges and dangers, fighting the enemy with the power of right, offering huge sacrifices, hard work and blood for the sake of defending the land and the citizens.
The Lebanese Army has always been conscious of the country’s concerns and at the heart of the people’s worries, reiterating continuously its slogan “together we have attained our independence and united we shall defend it”.

1 – The cornerstones of Independence

The independence of a nation stands for the sovereignty of the people on their land, and their free choice incarnated in the State and public legal constitutional institutions expressing the will of the people, away from foreign influences and interferences; Moreover independence is based on major foundations that must be available altogether to preserve its stability and permanence.

First of all: the gathering national will, having roots in the awareness of the different groups regarding their national personality built up through history, geography, heritage, values and traditions, in addition to the concurrence of objectives and common interests.

Throughout history, the Lebanese people have incarnated this will through their permanent endeavor to liberate their nation from foreign armies that successively occupied its land. Together, they resisted the Ottoman occupation during four centuries, and later on they confronted the French mandate, until they have achieved their total independence in 1943. Thereafter, the Lebanese people never slackened, for a single moment, from fulfilling their national duty of defending the land and sacred beliefs from the Israeli enemy. They confronted its continuous attacks and resisted its occupation of parts of the Lebanese land in the 1978 and 1982 invasions, until the unification and the gathering will of the Lebanese people were clearly revealed to its highest degree by achieving the big Victory over this enemy on the 25th of May 2000. All the Lebanese people equally met around the flag of their country following the assassination of late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, and expressed a great sense of brotherhood and citizenship solidarity all through the last Israeli brutal aggression over Lebanon in 2006. This solidarity also manifested itself later when the people stood side by side with their Army during its confrontation with terrorism in Nahr el-Bared in 2007.

Independence is also founded on the unity of the people and the land, for in the absence of this unity, there can only be fragmentation and division, and this would expose the internal scene to foreign interferences and conflicts.
Moreover, the Lebanese Constitution has established the borders of the Lebanese territory which were later recognized by the International community. Any fragmentation or division of this land is a threat to the existence of the nation. However, in spite of all the painful incidents that struck the country, the Lebanese people never relinquished the formula of coexistence that was revived by the signature of the National Agreement of Taef which undoubtedly confirms this irrefutable truth.

The third cornerstone of independence is manifested by the state of Institutions which expresses the will of the people and its unity. These institutions are commissioned with the mission of governing and administrating the affairs of the people according to the principle of rights and obligations. These institutions are also in charge of protecting the land and managing its resources, and thus, they constitute an important pillar of a sovereign and independent nation. The Army comes at the forefront of these institutions, in proportion to its main function as the nation's protector; It is an institution that gathers the Lebanese citizens regardless of their affiliations and birthplaces, and fuses them in a national united melting pot based on the higher values and principles of the Lebanese society and on the message of military life which transforms the soldiers into ideals of courage, sacrifice and constant readiness to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the country. Accordingly, the Military institution immensely contributes to secure general stability in the country through its effective participation in determining and developing harmonious currents and inclinations in society.

2 – The Army and the Country
A – The Defensive Missions

The first duty of the Army is to defend the country and the population of the nation against any external aggression, and thus to ensure a secure society and guarantee the means of stability and development in all the fields; since its official foundation on the 1st of August 1945, the Army did not spare any effort nor did it abstain for a second from fulfilling its defensive duty. In 1948 the Army fought the first heroic battle in El Malekeyah which was liberated from the Israeli enemy’s occupation despite the unbalanced military capacities, armed with the power of its righteous cause in the face of tyranny. Afterwards, the bright heroic stages in the Army’s path followed in succession, and this fact manifested itself in the confrontations of Souk El Khan in 1970, and at the axis of Beit Yahoun-Tebnine and Kafra-Yater in 1972, in Tyre in 1975, the invasions of 1978 and 1982, the operation of “settlement” in 1993 and the operation “Grapes of wrath” in 1996 and finally in the great national epic of 2006 where the Lebanese stood side by side with their Army, people and resistance to confront the Israeli enemy which launched a brutal war against Lebanon, systematically destroying the country’s infrastructure and institutions, and deliberately targeting innocent citizens in their homes in the four corners of the country. All along this war, the Army reflected on the confrontation lines, the image of the resisting country. In their deployment locations, The Army units played their defensive role with all the available means by confronting the enemy warplanes, thwarting many landings and infiltration attempts. As a result of these confrontations, 50 Lebanese soldiers martyred and a greater number of soldiers suffered from injuries. Their blood joined the blood of children, women, old men and heroic resistance fighters who martyred in the fields of steadfastness and dignity.

Currently the Army persists in conducting its defensive missions in the south assisted by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon taking into consideration the Army Commander's emphasis on the necessity to exert all the efforts for the sake of preserving the achievement of the Liberation which was accomplished in 2000. General Jean Kahwagi also stressed the necessity to make all the efforts with the aim of liberating the remaining Lebanese occupied territories in the Farms of Shebaa, the hills of Kfarshouba and the northern part of el-Ghajar village in addition to confronting any Israeli aggression including the air breaches just as the Army did in the region of Houla on 17/10/2009.
Stressing the Army's cling to each and every inch of the country's land, a specialized military committee, in cooperation with the International Force, proceeds with the mission of remarking the Blue line which was partly deformed during the aggression of July 2006. In the course of its work, the committee succeeded in defining millions of square meters of liberated and abandoned territories and the Army is working in cooperation with the International Force and the official authorities to clear the mines from these areas and build roads in a preliminary step toward handing over these territories to their owners.

B – The Development Missions

The Army conducts its security missions in the different Lebanese regions based on a series of principles:
- The Army is a unifying national institution that distances itself from confessionalism and political gravitations and abides by the valid laws and regulations as well as the decisions of the executive authority in the framework of the higher national interest.
- The complete impartiality while dealing with the citizens and the implementation of the principles of justice and equality during the execution of the missions, in order to preserve democracy, public freedoms and Human Rights.
- Ensuring continuity in the execution of security procedures and measures through transparency in leadership, management, and positions in addition to devoting the necessary time, exerting the maximum efforts, and showing vigilance in examining the situation, ensuring swiftness and firmness in the execution of the missions and dealing firmly with any peace disturbance.
The Army played during the past years the primary role in keeping peace and stability despite the intense political divisions in the country in addition to the demonstrations, sit-ins and serious security incidents in such a manner that its fast and firm intervention with the aim of controlling the incidents and preventing the escalation of the situation constituted a glimpse of hope which allowed all the sides to return to the language of dialogue and agreement. During this year, the Army units conducted in all the Lebanese regions a series of different security missions which included fighting organized crime, ensuring the security of the elections in addition to the continuous interventions aimed at controlling the security incidents, especially the ones that took sectarian aspects in the regions of Ain Remmaneh-Shiyah and Tripoli. These incidents pushed the Army to exert additional efforts to put an end to these incidents and to track the perpetrators regardless of their political affiliation as well as showing determination to impose law and order in the different Lebanese regions, stressing that no political side can secure a safe haven to any perpetrator. 

Moreover, in the security framework, the joint force which is commissioned with the surveillance and control mission of the border in land and at sea made very important achievements in the field of prohibiting illegal infiltration and putting an end to smuggling operations on both sides of the border in the north. The joint force includes the Lebanese Army's first Land Border Regiment and units of the Internal Security Forces, the General Security and the Customs. A new borderline crossing point, dedicated solely to the crossing of pedestrians and tourist vehicles, was set up in the region of Wadi Khaled with the aim of easing the burdens of travel. In the meantime, cooperation between military committees of the Lebanese and Syrian Armies persist in the mission of solving the problems resulting from the demographic and geographic intergradations especially concerning the issues of education and the investment of agricultural land.

On the other hand, the Army Command started its preparations for the project related to the control of the entire eastern border. For this purpose, the second Land Border Regiment was formed as a preliminary step toward the creation of the border Special Joint Force which will commence conducting its missions as soon the sufficient manpower and equipment are available.

Fighting terrorism

Terrorism is considered one of the most dangerous threats facing the country due to the fact that terrorism constitutes the clear contradictory form of the Lebanese formula that is based on the principles of coexistence between the different constituents of the Lebanese society and thanks to the country's openness to the different world societies.
The Army firmly confronted the terrorist groups and organizations during many stages and mainly during its confrontation with the Organization of "Fateh El Islam" in 2007 in Nahr El Bared where the Army managed to achieve complete victory over this organization, championed by an overwhelming popular support, after offering 171 martyrs and hundreds of wounded soldiers on the altar of the country.
The Army succeeded later, in cooperation with the Internal Security Forces, in arresting most of the dangerous terrorist networks' members which targeted soldiers with explosives in the regions of el-Abdeh and Tripoli in northern Lebanon during the year 2008. The Army also managed to dismantle many terrorist networks. One of the most important of these networks was affiliated to El Qaïda organization and planned to detonate a series of huge explosions in Lebanon and in a number of Arab countries.

Fighting Espionage

Espionage operations are some of the most important means exploited by the Israeli enemy against Lebanon in times of peace and war and to acquire different information which might be used to carry out terrorist explosions and assassinations with the aim of damaging the country's unity and the formula of coexistence. However, the Army has been constantly vigilant to confront this threat and has succeeded during the past years in dismantling many espionage networks. Probably one of the most important of these networks is headed by Mahmoud Rafeh who has confessed of conducting many criminal operations. Rafeh has also confessed of his participation in the execution of the assassination operation of the Majzoub brothers in Sidon in 26/5/2006. Yet, the greatest accomplishment in this regard was achieved in 2008 and 2009 when the Intelligence Directorate, in cooperation with all the different security agencies, managed to uncover dozens of networks collaborating with the Israeli Mossad and to arrest most of their members. The Intelligence Directorate seized highly sophisticated and developed cameras and communication devices in the possession of these spies. The arrested spies also confessed of gathering information related to military posts and headquarters of parties in addition to monitoring the movements of political and military officials as well as preparing to conduct acts of sabotage to the benefit of the enemy.
In this regard, the Army has managed, in cooperation with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, to dismantle booby trapped espionage devices hidden under the ground by the Israeli enemy in the Lebanese region of Houla. The devices which were detonated from a distance constitute another aggression against Lebanon and another clear violation to Resolution 1701.

C – The Development Missions

Since its establishment, the Army was strongly correlated to society not only through the defensive and security missions but also through taking an interest in social fields and in the services which are executed when necessary after realizing that security and economic development in the country are just like two “inseparable twins”.
Among the many activities of the Army in this regard we can list the following:
Rehabilitating the touristic facilities and archeological sites; launching campaigns to clean the beaches in addition to reforestation activities; extinguishing fires; building roads in remote areas; supplying some of the public departments with expertise, means and human resources; offering the necessary assistance to civil society organizations and to social, cultural and arts institutions; rescue and evacuation operations; creating committees to assess damages resulting from natural disasters and emergency incidents.

On the other hand, The Army attached special importance to the problem of mines which is related to both security and development, considering its direct impact on the citizens’ lives and daily work, along with the investment of their lands and possessions; this problem emerged with the end of the incidents in 1990 and intensified after the defeat of the Israeli enemy in May 2000, as the Lebanese people faced another kind of occupation represented in the presence of around 550 000 mines which the enemy left behind in the South and West Bekaa. Then, the problem came to a climax with the War of July when the Israeli enemy launched more than one million cluster bombs against southern Lebanon.

In coordination with specialized teams from friend and Arab states and International Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), the Army managed to achieve the following objectives until 1/11/2009:
- Clearing and detonating 126000 anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines and 430000 shells and unexploded bombs, 197000 cluster bombs, 511 air missiles and 78000 unidentified objects.
- Clearing out an area of 91 km2 out of 165 km2 from mines and unexploded shells.
- Clearing out an area of 20 km2 out of 37 km2 infected with cluster bombs.
On the another hand, the Lebanese Mine Action Coordination Centre, in cooperation with the national committee for awareness from mine dangers are still launching orientation and guidance campaigns in all the Lebanese regions where the exerted efforts led to a great decrease in the rate of victims annually.

3 – The Military Institution – Giant Steps Forward

Preserving the military institution’s capabilities necessitates constant persistence in the process of development on all the levels. Based on this fact, the Army Command attached great importance to the issues of training and equipment and thus it resorted to extend the services of former conscripts and gradually enlisted among them those who desire to continue their career in the military institution. The Army also embarked upon intensifying training sessions inside and outside the country in addition to activating educational courses in the Academy of Fouad Chehab for Command and Staff and in all the other academies and schools with the aim of qualifying senior officers to assume high commanding responsibilities as well as teaching officers, noncommissioned officers and new soldiers who are distinguished with great military abilities. And in the framework of its prompt endeavor to provide the necessary weapons and equipment, the Armed Forces Commander General Jean Kahwagi visited the Syrian Arab Republic, the United States of America, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the States of Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates where he discussed the Lebanese Army’s needs with senior military and political officials and examined the potential aids.

These visits paid off with good results especially in the fields of training and logistics in view of the fact that the Army received a quantity of equipments, machineries and weapons including the multifunctional American Airplane Cessna Caravan 208B which conducted an experimental shooting drill in the field of Taybe – Baalbeck with an air to land “Hell Fire” missile which is considered a modern high precision tactical weapon. The Airplane’s crew showed a high level of competence and precision in marking out and hitting the targets.
We find it worth mentioning that the Lebanese Air force has managed, during a record time period, to train pilots who are capable of flying the three firefighting Sykorsky helicopters that the ministry of interior and municipalities has received as part of a donation granted by the association “Akhdar Dayem”. These helicopters conducted, during the past summer, many firefighting flights.
In another field, the Army Command persevered in improving the social and living conditions of the Army personnel, especially through raising the level of the Military Medical Corps with regard to supporting it with sophisticated military equipment and competent human resources in addition to activating the performance of the Military Housing Corps. The Army Command has also built buildings and additional facilities including the new building of the Central Military Club in el-Manara – Beirut and the Central noncommissioned officers Club in the north which were erected thanks to the Army personnel’s subscriptions and the military institution’s own capabilities. In the same regard, it is noteworthy to mention that the Army Command has completed working on the necessary blueprints for the establishment of a model military hospital. The Army Command is only waiting to provide the necessary funding in order to proceed with the execution of this project.

4 – The Army history – The first part has seen the light

Based on the necessity to safeguard the military institution’s legacy and to preserve its achievements and the sacrifices of its generations, realizing the importance of perceiving the institution’s history, its development, role and the events it faced, the Army Command set up committees specialized in history which included officers and College professors. The mentioned committees gathered documents from the military archive, records of University libraries, publishing houses, research centers, journals and magazines.
The committees also contacted public figures, national officials and retired officers who were contemporary with the French mandate era or those who acquired information concerning this era. Furthermore, members of these committees were delegated to visit France in a mission aimed at taking copies of what is needed from the French military archive with regard to the formation of the Lebanese military units and their missions during this stage.
The successive committees managed after intense efforts to conclude the composition of the book “History of the Lebanese Army – First Part” which includes the period stretching from 1920 (date of the declaration of the State of Greater Lebanon) until 1945 (official date of the Lebanese Army’s foundation).

Crowning this great achievement, the Army Command organized a ceremony to celebrate the book release in the hall of Brigadier General Njeim in Yarzeh on 14/10/2009 under the patronage of his Excellency the President of the Republic General Michel Sleiman and in the presence of Speaker Nabih Berri, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and a number of ministers in addition to the Armed Forces Commander General Jean Kahwagi, members of the Military Council, senior officers and a crowd of university deans, directors of media and cultural and scientific institutions which contributed to the publication of the book.
The President of the Republic delivered a speech in the occasion which he introduced with a salute to the Army’s martyrs. He proceeded by saying “when we examine our Army’s history and foundation, it is most necessary to reiterate an irrefutable fact binding the Army with the foundation of Lebanon and its persistence as a united independent country, unifying all of its citizens. The journey begins in the south where a young Army stood up to defend the country’s border. During those days, military history wrote the events of el-Malikiye battle, considering it a true example of the Army’s capacity and devotedness. Then, after a coercive absence, the Army regained its role and the Lebanese flag fluttered again in the south when its troops defended its borders and confronted the enemy’s provocations and violations benefiting from the support of the International Force in the endeavor to fully implement the provisions of Resolution 1701. During all these stages the Army never refrained from offering the blood of its troops in the trenches of defending the country, side by side with the heroic resistance fighters, with the aim of confronting and expelling the occupier. Everyone knows that defending the country required a greater role for the Army, a role surpassing this mission. Thus the Lebanese Army, in many stages, had to confront dangers threatening the very existence of the Lebanese entity. This fact transformed it into the most important, and sometimes the only guarantee to the Lebanese people's hope, in safeguarding the regime, preserving its democracy and facilitating the safe passage towards peace and stability". President Sleiman concluded his speech by saying "whenever a storm blows over this country, the military morale endeavored to join the souls of the citizens and safeguarded the Army's unity and the country's survival. Hence, the Lebanese Army is dedicated to the country as a whole and it is not the protector of the regime".

Afterwards, General Kahwagi also delivered a speech in which he welcomed the President and all the guests and expressed his gratitude to all those who contributed to the achievement of the mission. "What is most important in knowing history is to examine its bright stages and achievements in order to use them as an example presently and in the future. Furthermore, it is equally important to examine the gloomy stages and failures in order to draw lessons and examples and to benefit from the past experiences of our predecessors for this will save us time, effort and capabilities and will probably save lives on many occasions" General Kahwagi said. "It is definitely true that the Lebanese Army's life span is short in comparison with many other armies of the world. However, Armies cannot be measured according to their life span but depending on their message, role and achievements. Therefore, we look up to the great feats of our disdainful Army with pride in a path that was loaded with sacrifices and efforts. Hence, this Army never refrained from executing its security and defensive duties manifested in its rejection to the French mandate, its long confrontations with the Israeli enemy, its confrontations with terrorism and with all the perpetrators who seek to wreak havoc in the country" The Armed Forces Commander added. "A history drawn by blood and sacrifices is surely much stronger than the wind of change and oblivion, and the Army which fully realizes its responsibilities and national duties is worthy of preserving the legacy of generations and deserves to safeguard the martyrs' trust. Let us learn lessons from the past and seek inspiration in the pages of our glorious history, the torch of hope with a bright future".

Conclusion

The 66th Anniversary of Independence appears while the Army of honor, sacrifice and loyalty is garrisoned at the country's border and deployed throughout its territories, keeping an eye on the land and another on the people's unity. The Independence Day appears while each and every soldier bears in his mind and imagination the flag of his country, family pictures and the achievements of his fellow martyrs who wrote with their blood the greatest pages of glory, independence and heroism in the book of freedom.