Quick update

Dear readers,

The last few days some of you have asked if everything is OK and expressed their worries because I haven't been blogging much. Rest assured, I am fine. I am still recovering from the operation, but everything is going as the doctor says it should. Thank you for your attention and kind e-mails.

The main reason for not blogging, besides the lack of focus due to the pain killers, is the situation in the Nahr el Bared camp. What to add to the excellent coverage from Blacksmith and other blogs? In these times, blogs proof their value more than ever. Whereas regular journalists write their story once a day and are published the next day, the blogs provide almost real-time updates of the battle.

Highly impressive indeed and it makes you wonder why people read newspapers any longer. Even the blogs of traditional journalists are often better than their articles. See Harold's blog as a good example.

As a tribute to Blacksmith, please find below a commentary from their blog by Jade that sums up my feelings exactly:

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The Lebanese government, in conjunction with UNSC Resolution 1559 has called for the disarmament of all non-state militias in Lebanon, but has been hampered in its efforts at implementing the resolution by a series of actions (no less than a war last summer) by Hizballah and its allies that have crippled the functionality of the country's political institutions.

Earlier in this conflict, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah had sought to cripple the Lebanese Army's ability to respond to the security crisis in Nahr el Bared by declaring that the Army should not enter the camp and that it was a "red line".

Today, and throughout this entire crisis, all the Lebanese stand united in their support of the Lebanese Army and in defiance of the campaign of terror that Fatah al Islam's primary backers in Syria have attempted to unleash on the country, and in defiance of the hand-binding that Hassan Nasrallah and the state-within-a-state he is the Secretary General of has attempted to impose on the Lebanese Army.

We live in an imperfect country but we want to work through its institutions to fix it. We want our Army to be strong, we want it defend us, and we want it to have a monopoly on arms in the country.

Today we salute all those fighting for Lebanon in Nahr el Bared, and all those who have fallen in our name. You make us proud.
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