Late last week, five suicide bombers attacked Lebanese soldiers as they raided two Syrian refugee camps in Arsal, a border town near Syria. People took to social media criticising the army.
A Syrian hacker group even defaced the Lebanese State TV website. The hackers insulted and threaten the Lebanese army for its “treatment of Syrian refugees.”
The operation left 7 soldiers wounded and a young Syrian refugee girl dead when one of the suicide bombers blew himself up between a family. A total of 355 Syrians were arrested.
A Lebanese official said the raids came after tips about the presence of explosives and a plot to carry out attacks in Lebanon.
The Lebanese Army, unlike most countries, takes a preemptive strike policy in dealing with terrorists and sleeper cells. Thankfully, this policy has kept the Lebanese people safe from countless of terrorist attacks that have been thwarted.
When we compare the number of terrorist attacks in the last couple of years between Lebanon and France, maybe the world should reconsider its approach to protecting its citizens.
After almost every attack in the Western World, we find out that terrorist was “known to authorities.” How irresponsible of their government and authorities to know that someone is dangerous and let him roam the streets freely!
I’ve always felt safer in Lebanon than I do in Canada. I’ve said this many times and people are quite often confused. Most of the attacks that took place in Lebanon tend to be in certain areas that most locals avoid anyway. While in countries like Canada, the attacks could be anywhere.
When the new anti-terrorism law came up in Canada a couple of years back, it let them quickly foil many attacks. 97 in 2015 alone. Among those plots was one that involved a group entering “a big mall” and stabbing as many people as they could before the police arrived – where they then plan to be killed by police. That year, 2 Canadian soldiers were killed one day after each other by dangerous people “known to authorities”. One ran over the soldier in St Jean, Quebec. The other shot a soldier at Ottawa’s iconic landmark where the soldier was not allowed to have bullets in his rifle. He was forced to run away in circles until the terrorist caught up to him, killed him then stormed the Parliament.
Why gamble with people’s lives? Why wait? You know they are dangerous, you know they are supporting groups that are beheading, raping, and massacring people. What are you waiting for?
When their own parents report them to the police because they knew they are going to do something wrong, why just put them on a “watchlist”? It is for that reason I’m proud of our Lebanese soldiers.
We have the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. The UN has close to 1.5 million Syrian refugees registered – while unofficial estimates have it closer to 2 million. On top of that another 600,000 Palestinian refugees. Tell a population of 4.5 million to host 2 million additional refugees with already poor infrastructure. With very limited resources and a significant decline in international support, the world can’t tell us how to handle our security. Especially not if it’s keeping its people safe – safer than the people in the very countries that criticise how we handle our affairs.
When Daesh (ISIS) affiliated groups took the town of Arsal and kidnapped Lebanese soldiers, none of those countries sent help. The army was left to fend for itself and managed to contain the situation. The only support the Lebanese army got in the conflict was a bunch of promises and some unarmed humvees.
We’re proud of our soldiers and stand by them as they fight Daesh and any other group undermining our security!
