CERTAINLY GOD WILL NOT DO BECAUSE GOD SAW THEIR ACTS

Lragir.am
25 Aug 06

Most Israeli soldiers are dissatisfied with the government, accusing
it of insufficient conditions during the war. After the fighting
the Israeli soldiers got back home and demanded the resignation
of the prime minister and the defense minister. All through the
confrontation of Israel and Hezbollah the propaganda machine of
the Armenian television, which had joined the defense of Lebanon,
seized the moment and informed the society what an uncomfortable and
disgraceful situation had occurred in the Israeli army during the
military actions, and how the Jews are settling accounts with one
another after settling accounts with Hezbollah. What a disgraceful
example of a disorganized state!

It is quite different in organized countries. Therefore, Tigran
Torosyan, the speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, one of
such countries, said on one of the channels, "God forbid the Armenian
state was like Israel." Surely God forbid. God forbid the soldiers
demand the resignation of the prime minister and the defense minister
because they will hardly manage to set them back with truncheons or
fire engines. In countries like Israel they listen to the soldiers and
admit there were drawbacks in the actions of the military command. And
of course, God forbid to be like a country where the government,
at least formally, admits its mistake before the rank and file. God
forbid to be a state like Israel where they are not used to returning
land to keep power. God forbid that Armenia is a state like Israel,
where Tigran Torosyan’s most fellow party members would be at the wheel
of tanks at the front line rather than Jeeps and Hummers. Certainly,
God forbid. Otherwise, what would the country do if God allowed?

Otherwise, who would sow wheat in the liberated areas, who would make
the soldiers harvest the wheat if Armenia were a state like Israel? I
do not want to say that Armenia should be like Israel, or Israel is
the best model of what a state should be like. Of course, not.

However, in Israel the soldiers complain of drawbacks in the period
of military actions, unlike Armenia where these drawbacks are there
even at peacetime. Our soldiers do not complain, however. Because
they are patriotic. And if suddenly it occurred to them to complain
of the conditions in the army, sanitation and hygiene, quality
of food, relations denying the army regulations, the treatment of
officers, legal leave in return for bribes, service as pageboys to
the commanders, they would be court-martialed for high treason.

Armenia is not Israel. There is rigid organization who should serve
in the army and who should serve on the paper. And God forbid that
suddenly this organization is distorted, and we become Israel. Some
people are unable to avoid serving the Homeland and obeying the law,
and do not want others who can to do. Yes, Armenians are full of
envy and want to become Israel out of envy. In the meantime, our
public officials have never been jealous of either Israel or their
own people. Instead, day by day, hour by hour, they have done hard
work to organize their own state and organize in a way that God forbid.

But God’s ways are always the best. Man organizes, God directs.

And certainly, God forbid Armenia becomes Israel, for in that case some
people get a chance to hide in the battlefield and become heroes as
they have done once, before God and in the name of God. The battlefield
is not their place and is not their field at all. One day, however,
they will walk in the field, in an organized way.

HAKOB BADALYAN