Honesty is best for foreign relations and to shield against war
The Lebanese National Bloc Party said that the release of the infiltrator Amer Al Fakhoury and its ramifications is an opportunity to stress that a public reconciliation between the Lebanese should have taken place when the civil war ended. This reconciliation should answer the fundamental question: why did all the Lebanese seek foreign powers to fight each other? The Bloc noted in a statement that the answer to the question will be the best shield against the return of war, and the best way to deal with foreign relations.
The Bloc sees that the Amer Al Fakhoury case is no different than all other cases of war criminals. War is a result of a political decision based on a desire to expand and to seize the lands of others and is met with resistance; it is not, as many think, an innate human trait. Politics as it seems always follows up with trying criminals of was; this is what happened in the Nuremberg trials after the end of World War II and all consequent trials up to that of Amer Al Fakhoury. In the case of Al Fakhoury, positions were divided based on political gains.
The Bloc considers that putting war criminals on trial has two goals: the first is moral compensation for the families of the victims, and the second is the retribution of criminals as a deterrent to those who are tempted to carry out war crimes. Unfortunately, the second goal is almost never achieved, and the best deterrent to war and war crimes is prevention: yet prevention was something the warlords made sure to omit in the “Taef” agreement.
A complete and public reconciliation should have happened among all the Lebanese that answered the following question: Why did all the Lebanese collude with foreign forces to fight each other? The Bloc concluded its statement by affirming that answering the former question is not for the purpose of indicating who was wrong, since everyone was wrong and that is the essence of the matter. Answering the questions would create a frank and honest dialogue of reconciliation that creates the best shield against the return of war, and the best policies for foreign relations.