On the Piers Morgan Uncensored podcast, Dr. Saleh Al Machnouk, a Lebanese professor at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, made the following statement. (The passages I quoted apply perfectly to the war imposed by IRGC on the Gulf countries. They also speak to the sentiments of the citizens of those nations, as well as most Iranians who oppose the policies and ideologies of the IRGC):
For the past 57 years, the Lebanese people have been reduced to footnotes in a series of regional and ideological conflicts, most recently those involving Gaza and Iran. All five million of us are treated as mere data points by those counting casualties, or simply as the natural fallout or extension of some ideological war. First, it was the Palestinians in the 60s, then the Egyptians, then the Syrians, then Hezbollah, and now it is the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its proxies.
Since 1969, one delusional militia after another has dragged Lebanon into war against the will of its own people. I am 42 years old, and this is the sixth war in my lifetime. So let me say this clearly: we, as Lebanese people, are officially and irrevocably done with our land being used for proxy wars. And when I say “we,” I speak not only for myself but for millions of Lebanese, an overwhelming majority who refuse to be part of this conflict.
Now, some people may not know this if they spend their days scrolling through X and listening to ideologues, but I refer to a poll conducted by Gallup, one of the most respected American institutions that conducts surveys in Lebanon. The poll asked the following:
- Do you believe the Lebanese army should be the only entity authorized to bear arms, not militias?
79% of Lebanese said yes, and only 19% said no.
- In your opinion, do you support Lebanon’s engagement with Palestine in any of the following ways—specifically, entering into military conflict with Israel on behalf of other causes?
86% of Lebanese said no, and only 10% said yes.
So, our message today to the world is very clear: this is not our war. This is neither a war of the Lebanese people against Israel, nor a war between the Lebanese government and Israel. This is a proxy war waged by the IRGC and its proxy, Hezbollah. All five million of us are simply pawns and hostages - for the millionth time - in this regional equation.
We constantly hear lectures on morality from pundits in the West, comfortably seated in their living rooms, pontificating about resistance and aggression. When Hezbollah launched rockets on March 2nd, they received a thank-you from the Iranians, from Mojtaba Khamenei himself. He thanked them in a letter for entering a war, I quote, “in defence of Iran despite local obstacles.” “Local obstacles” meaning the Lebanese people!
And what did the Lebanese people get? Not just bombs, but over a million displaced, more than a thousand dead, mayhem across the country, and billions of dollars in losses. On top of that, we receive lectures on morality from pundits, intellectuals, and academics living comfortably in the West, people who want to use our suffering as Lebanese people to fuel their ideological fantasies. I want these people to leave us alone and find other outlets for their ideological ambitions.
This conflict is not about their problems in America with Donald Trump. It is not about their views on Gaza, some of which may be valid. It is not about a reductive worldview of good versus evil. And it is certainly not about some notion that they can change the world by using Lebanese lives. These ideologues - these woke leftists - want to exploit our suffering for their ideological fantasies.
These people are the objective and reasonable allies of the worst elements of Israeli society and the Israeli right. Since 1993, when Hamas was bombing buses, the extreme lunatic fringe of Israeli society killed Yitzhak Rabin. From that time onward, these two forces - the ideological woke left, Hezbollah, and the extreme right-wing in Israel - have been fighting each other at the expense of the people of this region, especially the Lebanese. Yet it is the will of the Lebanese people and the Lebanese government to put an end to this war. We want these people - along with the militias and the IRGC - to leave us alone and let us live in peace and prosperity.
As Lebanese, we want to ensure that regional conflicts - no matter their righteousness or lack thereof - are not extended into Lebanon at the expense of the Lebanese people. If you ask me, both as an analyst and as a Lebanese citizen, we have seen nothing from the IRGC except assassinations, bombings, the radicalization of society, rising sectarianism, and never-ending wars. So, yes, if you ask me whether I would like to see the Iranian regime fall, and whether that would solve Lebanon's problems, I would say yes.
But my primary concern is not whether to support or oppose a war between Israel, the United States, and Iran. My main concern is Lebanon, and not what Western pundits say about it.
I have seen many pundits, some of whom have been guests on your show, speaking about Lebanon from all the way across the American continent, 7,000 miles away. I would like to ask them a question, right here from Beirut:
How many Lebanese need to die to satisfy your ideological cravings?
We keep being lectured to as if we are children incapable of deciding our own fate and our own national interest. Khalas, as we say in Lebanon, enough! We want them to leave us alone.
I have heard the argument that Israel is attacking Lebanon and that the Lebanese army should therefore stand alongside Hezbollah to fight Israel, as if that were in Lebanon's national interest. This is not only idiotic and shameful, but also counterproductive. And how do I know it is counterproductive? Because unlike them, I rely on facts, research, and history to prove my point.
We know from history when Lebanon was attacked and when it was not. Based on studies I have conducted, 80% of us in Lebanon know that in the 20 years between the armistice agreement of 1949 and the start of PLO attacks against Israel in 1969, Israel violated Lebanese sovereignty 82 times. As a result of skirmishes during those two decades, 15 people died and 16 were injured. Why? Because there were no militias in southern Lebanon, and the state held a monopoly on arms.
Now compare that to the era often praised by some of these pundits, the era in which "resistance" was supposedly fighting Israel and protecting Lebanon. Between 2006 and 2026, 6,152 Lebanese died and 23,056 were injured. During this same period, Israel violated Lebanese sovereignty 62,150 times. That is a 410-fold increase in deaths and a 756-fold increase in violations. The math is clear. We need these pundits to stop lying to us at the expense of our lives because of their ideology.
Speaking of occupation and aggression, we know from the certification of the UN Secretary General in April 2000 that Israel had withdrawn from and ended its occupation of every single inch of Lebanese territory. Today, because of these so-called wars of liberation for Gaza and Iran, approximately 25% of Lebanese territory is now occupied. We also know, as a matter of historical fact, that in the 78 years of coexistence between Lebanon and Israel - despite 20 years of military occupation in the south - not a single Jewish settlement was ever established in southern Lebanon.
So, save us your buzzwords about expansionism, colonialism, and settlements. We know our history. We do not need people blinded by ideology to tell us that we must stand with an illegal, sectarian, fundamentalist militia to fight Israel. We do not need to do that. What we need is to stand with our army to establish Lebanese sovereignty, because once that is achieved, Israel will neither be able nor willing to attack Lebanon, and thousands of lives will be spared.
