WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began :(

[Shiva]

I have just seen the MOST shocking video of the year, I mean this one beats them all:
What you will see is a journalist documenting a checkpoint set by a group of armed men, militia men, armed till the teeth and blocking a main road in the bekaa valley. Suddenly a 6-wheel Lebanese army truck filled with Lebanese soldiers passes through this roadblock as if nothing is happens, without arresting anyone carrying illegal weapons, actually without even stopping, as simple as that! This clearly shows that Lebanon is slowly loosing the rule of law, and the State is loosing grip over the country. In other words, may God help Lebanon for the days to come... War is at our doorsteps!

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And just like many other Lebanese, I am scared as hell

[chuckc]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

damn that is really scary shiva, i cant imagine what your going through. is there any way you can temporarily relocate until things settle down?

[floridaorange]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

that's crazy Shiva! I'm surprised no warning shots or anything were fired by the guards.

stay safe, hope things work themselves out peacefully if possible. War anywhere affects everyone
everywhere.

[Shiva]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

Thank you for your concerns guys, I really appreciate it.

Just like all the Lebanese at the moment, I am very scared, the feeling of being unsafe is overwhelming; If I didn't have kids the problems would have been much easier to face, but with 2 kids at hand it makes this whole issue very complicated.

We have many places we can relocate, but the thing is that we cannot relocate "temporarily" , such a move cannot be applied to this particular situation because if war breaks out nobody can predict its outcome, duration and orientation. Imagine that today 2 missiles were fired at Beirut, and we all know that the war is an inter-muslim war, the christians have nothing to do with it. The army investigated the source from where those 2 missiles were fired, and they even found the lunch pads in a christian area, 15 minutes drive time from my house, which means that they want to involve the christian community into this inter-muslim war! This takes this whole situation to another level, it means if a war breaks out in Lebanon it will be an ALL SCALE war! My husband lived part of the 20 years civil war in Lebanon, we know what it is like, we surely don't want to experience it, and more importantly don't wana give that kind of live to our children:
So in case we leave, we would leave without coming back and without looking back, ever!
My husband and I both came from Europe to build our lives in what was supposed to have been a prosperous Lebanon, it took us A LOT of sacrifices and hard work to build our castle our own little paradise, and it seems we are about to loose it all and be forced to start again from zero elsewhere. Doing that at 20 years old is something, doing it at fourty years old with 2 kids is something totally different, the challenges are incomparable. We are scared, we are very scared because we know for sure that the war is coming sooner or later, but surely! Today we learned that the West has armed the FSA with the weapons they have been requesting since the beginning of the Syrian civil war. Today they released a statement saying that they have finally received the weapons they we begging the West for, weapons that will change the course of the Syrian civil war. Translated in other words, the war has just been extended to I donno how many years to come, and the involvement of Hizballah in the Syrian war is growing, and the FSA have every intention to make Lebanon pay VERY expensive that involvement.
On another side, Israel is getting ready for its 3rd war with Lebanon, with Hizballah. If you put yourself in the Israeli shoes, now that Hizballah is busy in Syria, now that Hizballah is relocating its armed forces from the South Lebanon to Northern Syria, NOW IS THE IDEAL time to attack them, because Israel has every intention to eliminate for good the Iranian threat from its northern border (Hizballah) before attacking Iran for its nuclear program. The picture is very clear! And in fact, the US are sending Patriots missiles to Jordan and the US special forces are training 10.000 moderate FSA members every 4 months until they reach an army of 150.000 strong FSA.
On the other side, Russia will do ANYTHING in its power to preserve its influence in Syria because of their naval base they have in Tartouse in Syria. Tartouse is the ONLY Russian military presence in the Mediterranean. If Russia looses Tartouse, Russia would be totally out of the Middle-East. The stakes are HUGE for all the parties involved. A war by proxy has just started...

And in all this, Lebanon is a little spit of land that is barely visible of the world map, it is almost insignificant.
Starting a new life in Europe where the economic situation is really bad is not something that is encouraging us.... No matter how we look at it, for us IT IS A NASTY NIGHTMARE - I am personally very close to falling into a deep depression, I am desperate, tired, exhausted of all this...

The middle east is about to change, history is being written...dark days are ahead of us.
As as someone said: "War is just an extension of politics".

[chuckc]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

i don't know what to tell u, tough choices ahead, i guess you need to do what you think is best for you and your family. explore all options as painful as it is.

[floridaorange]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

Is Europe your only option for moving? Wyoming is lovely. God, stay safe dear and muster up some courage for the little ones. I'm not gonna pretend to relate to your situation because I can't. But I can pray for you all that you find some clarity are out of harms way and are able to make the best decision for your familily.

We have a house in North Carolina you could possibly stay in.

[nelinho]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

No relatives or acquaintances in Australia? There is a sizeable Lebanese population in Sydney in particular...our economy has been lucky in comparison to other developed nations (due to demand for resources) low unemployment in particular, high cost of living though

[kassios]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

War AGAIN in Lebanon ......In case of emergency the best and safest place to be is Cyprus - Limassol (30 minute flight)

Hope things get well Shiva

[simonr]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

Sad news, hope you and your family stay safe .. and the different factions see sense.

[DancingQueen]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

How scary! May you & your family & friends stay safe! xo

[Shiva]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

Thank you ALL for your concerns ladies & gents, you have no idea what this represents to me: thank you.
I want you all to know that MS helps me keep my sanity, because where I live nowadays can make someone flip very very easily, and the below is a living proof of it...get your popcorn and get this (my) reality check:

Last nite the 3rd biggest city of Lebanon, Sidon (Saida), the capital of the South Of Lebanon turned into a warzone between the Lebanese Army and militiamen belonging to a Salafist (sunni) group lead by Sheikh AL-Assir.

The story behind all this is the crazy part:
Saida is in majority sunni, and this beautiful face below belongs to the SPIRITUAL leader of the salafists, Ahmad Al Assir. (which is equivalent to a priest for us christians)

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This guy is sending his believers to fight in Syria against President Assad & Hizballah & the Iranians (All Shiias).
But he is also accusing Hizballah of trying to take over the city of Saida that leads to Northern Israel; if Hizballah wants to attack Israel they have to go from beirut and pass though Saida in order to get to Northern Israel.
So the Lebanese army pledged to protect him and his group in order to avoid and firefight or war between those 2 factions, those 2 militias: The Salafists (Sunnis ) & Hizballah (Shiias).

And all of a sudden, yesterday, Mr. Al-Assir decides to point his weapons and his militia against the Lebanese army - which is protecting him!!! Why?! Well under the pretext that the army is in collusion with Hizballah against him.

As a result: 17 Lebanese soldiers were slaughtered, 20 Salafists got killed, and 162 other salafists gave themselves up and surrendered, all that after destroying half the city (all this in less than 24 hours).

Mr. Al-Assir managed to escape to the Northern city of Tripoli, where the sunni stronghold is, from where it seems he is preparing an all-scale war against the Lebanese army. He even called upon the sunnis soldiers enrolled in the Lebanese Army to defect, he wants to weaken our only legitimate force that protects us all from these kind of people.
Some say he even went to Syria to fight against the Shiaas:
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Just before the war broke out in Saida, during his last speech at his mosque, Al-Assir describes us Christians as "the believers in animals" - It seems he wants to involve the Christians in this inter-muslims war.

Anyway, Mr. Al-Assir managed to escape with his 2 right hand guys, and here comes the "hilarious" part I donno whether to laugh about it or to cry about it:
One of those 2 guys his name is Fadel Shaker; Fadel Shaker is an arabic singer, I personally never heard of him but they consider him here like our Sting, or Bono in the West.
And this guy, Shaker, recently met with Al-Assir, and since then, since that meeting Shaker totally turned against singing because he believes that singing makes God angry and that finally he found his purpose in life, which is fight in the name of Allah; Here is an article about this subject: http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/4874 (Check it out)

So now we have the Fadel Shaker, the singer Arab Idole, before meeting the Sheikh Al-Assir, ("the Sting")
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We have the Fadel Shaker while doing his (overnight) spiritual transition - meeting Al-Assir:

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And of course Fadel Shaker discovering his vocation (this particular beard without the moustache is a sign of the sunnis), he has finally seen the light and understood the purpose of his life:

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From being a successful Arab Idole to..............having found God!

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This story is one of the CRAZIEST stories I have ever heard!!!

I donno about you but I am having hard time digging that...

And btw, he is already on the most wanted list of the Lebanese intelligence for I donno what.... lol

[nick007]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

Stay safe girl - sounds terrifying with all the uncertainty going on, We also holding onto a thread in SA waiting for Mandela to die and not knowing what will happen after. my prayers with you

[nelinho]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

thanks for the detailed info....that was useful to see what is going on...just read a report on bbc prior to this....lots of focus on syria still

[Shiva]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

Stay safe girl - sounds terrifying with all the uncertainty going on, We also holding onto a thread in SA waiting for Mandela to die and not knowing what will happen after. my prayers with you

Thank you Nick...

The situation is getting worse by the day...

[runningman]

Re: WAR is at Lebanon's doorsteps... The countdown has began

Come to Canada. Windsor to be more precise. Half of our population is Lebanese.