Aoun’s Enemy Switching

How Aoun convinced the FPM supporters not to care about Syria anymore.

Still on the march…

Has it ever baffled you that the Aounists are still sticking with their leader despite his new alliance with his old Syrian nemesis?

Last Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Minister couldn’t make it clearer that he supports Mr. Aoun. And yet even veteran Aounists who used to resist Syria are arguing that it’s good thing. How come?

To understand, one has to look way back at the years where Aoun took the popular position of resisting the Syrians. We all thought back then that he was doing it because it was the right thing to do, but many of us are learning today that he did it because Syria was the only thing standing between him and power.

In the course of the anti-Syrian years, Mr. Aoun built a personality cult. Hardcore followers trusted what he said to be the right thing and believed him when he insinuated that the real enemies today are the Sunnis, not the Syrians. They believed him when he said that the real dictators live in Koreitem and the Seraille, not in Anjar and Damascus. 

Indeed, tayyar.org is filled with anti-Hariri (father and son), anti Seniora, anti ISF and anti-Saudi hatred. The Syrians on the other hand are conspicuously absent. In fact, the Syrians are now implicitly portrayed as allies against the new bad guys and Aoun’s Christian opponents are regularly smeared as “on the payroll of Mr. Hariri”.

Aoun has effectively switched enemies and is now focusing on the evil Saudi-backed “Wahhabis”. By doing that he pulled off a seemingly impossible feat: He kept the energy of his rebellious supporters but made them no longer care about Syria.