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Hassan Nasrallah’s Victory! | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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My advice is to ignore Hassan Nasrallah words about his war being a nation’s war. This is untrue, since the war also involves Iran and its affiliates in the region.

That said, I would like a clear definition of what is meant by victory, and what is meant by defeat?

How do the victorious know that they are successful and how do those who have been defeated know that they have been conquered?

Let’s take the 1956 war as an example, when the United States imposed the Security councils call for a cease-fire which France, Britain and Israel complied with.

Can that be called a victory?

What about the 1967 war when Israel occupied the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Sinai, the latter of which was retrieved only through negotiations. This is not to say that the element of war should be abolished for liberation but to clarify that a lot of those who fought in our wars do not deserve to be called soldiers let alone leaders!

What about the occupation of Beirut in 1982, was that a victory or defeat? Here, some would argue that Hezbollah liberated south Lebanon; my question however, is who liberated Beirut? In the same context of trying to understand the concepts of victory and defeat, what do we call the “mother of all battles” that was led by the former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, which he celebrated until he was imprisoned? The liberation of Kuwait was a defeat of the Arab culture that had supported Saddam and defeat of the generations that came after the liberation. How much of our resources were wasted?

The aforementioned cases are related to states, but what about movements? Bin Laden is in his cave with Al Zawahiri as some argue that the former is yet to be defeated as he is still alive. Bin Laden, who had 7000 fighters under his authority and who was saluted by them every morning lived in Afghanistan not a cave, so if this is not defeat, what is? Furthermore, the presence of Al Qaeda is a clear defeat of our culture and ourselves.

I have provided these arguments to demonstrate that whilst the Israeli army is destroying Lebanon, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah hides in an unknown location only to appear and express that his perseverance alone is a victory. By perseverance, he means that he has not been killed and this resembles Saddam Hussein’s idea of victory during the war in Kuwait, as he considered the subsistence of his regime a victory!

Should we consider he who hides victorious? Therefore, according to this logic, Hitler, who we do not know how he died or whether he was killed, was victorious. Japan, after it was destroyed was also victorious, whereas China, a strong country, should be considered weak since Hong Kong was colonized by the British for ninety nine years.

We are killed, destroyed and defeated but amongst us, there remain people who seek to lead us to into new disasters whilst those who use their minds are doomed. Not one nation has achieved success before acknowledging reality and calling it by what it is, whether defeat or victory. This is what is required for any nation to know where it is going and how it would get there.

This is not an article of frustration, but rather a call for you to wake up for the sake of God.