[Youchka]

Originally Posted by chafic

Of course, armed Salafis are another threat. But on scale, they couldn't even be compared to Hezbollah.

That is in your opinion, in mine, they are worse, Salafis cut throats and kill civilians in cold blood, which we did not see from HA neither in Beirut or anywhere else. Please do not discuss this issue with me, it won't go anywhere, those extremists khalifet el Quaeda are no match to anyone when it comes to brutality and inhumanity.

Why is anyone supposed to believe there was no intimidation in 2005; FPM is a political ally of Hezbollah and is not credible today as to whether there were intimidation in 2005 or not. In any case, they could have changed policy, as simple as that. In 2005 they didn't invade Beirut, in 2008 they did, to "put the train on the right track".

I don't know if there was intimidation or not and I don't care, because obviously people did not give in to it since WE THE OPPONENTS OF HA BACK THEN GOT THE MAJORITY OF THE VOTES IN OUR AREAS. And what does being allies to HA now have anything to do with our credibility to what happened in 2005, it is not an opinion I am giving you, it is facts, we did win the majority of the votes whether there was intimidation or not. Let the others get intimidated the way people were in 2005 and give their votes to HA opponents, what are you still discussing here?

Who said that in the other case, there wouldn't be intimidation by Hezbollah, but it's simply worth a try. They wouldn't probably stretch muscles too much for a little piece of land but could very much do so for general elections.

I do not like to discuss with someone who bases all his arguments on "could be", "could very much do this", "could very much do that". Yes walla geagea and his thugs could also go down to the streets and terrorize people who do not vote for them, they have weapons too. I do not go by the "could" thing, the sky could fall on our heads any minute.

All what you are accusing HA of, can work both ways. When you mentioned May 7 issue, the opposition fought in Beirut with individual weapons, not rockets, and those weapons, all parties have them in quantities including PSP, LF, FM, without forgetting the dear old Salafis, therefore any threat that you accuse HA of, can be also implied to the others. In 2005, there was GREAT intimidation done against us in the North, and it was not done by HA that I can assure you, and we still went for the elections. So if you are trying to find excuses for the others' loud failure in 2009 don't, if you think they will be people's choice, no need for this whole discussion, last time, despite HA weapons and HA "could be" intimidation, people chose who they wanted.