US President George Bush and his aides close and far do not miss an opportunity to declare their government's strong support for Lebanon's independence. For example, on June 21, during press availability at the 2006 US-EU Summit, Bush called on Syria "to leave Lebanon alone… let them be a free democracy".

Unquestionably, all statements of support for Lebanon's freedom and democracy are welcome, especially from big powers. Nevertheless, the task of insuring and safeguarding Lebanon's independence, freedom and democracy is not up to big powers such as the USA or to close neighbors such as Syria. Such support is helpful, and, arguably, necessary, but is clearly insufficient. For it is up to the Lebanese themselves, and only to the Lebanese, to achieve and sustain their own, true independence.

Although the people of Lebanon are said to have substantially secured their independence from the French in November, 1943, from Nasser's United Arab Republic in September 1958, from Israel in May 2000, and from Syria in April 2005, yet none of these events was a fully accomplished achievement. Multi national armies under a large number of flags, French, British, American, Israeli, Palestinian, Syrian, and other, came and left. Depending on one's political perception, some came as invaders, others as friends and allies. Invariably, many Lebanese look at the contemporary military interventions and occupation inflicted on them as evidence of strong external interest in their country. They see themselves and their country as the innocent prey and victim of foreigners. They see the foreign interest in Lebanon as strongly continuing and stubbornly un-relented.

The truth is that many, if not all, of the foreign flagged armies entered Lebanon with the acquiescence, connivance, invitation or open welcome of the mainstream Lebanese political establishment, as friends, allies or even liberators and were forced to leave after the same establishment labeled them as trespassers and aggressors. It is also true that the Lebanese political establishment allowed itself to be patronized and manipulated by the external powers, the "external colonialists", in return for iron-clad guarantees for its privilege of unaccountable corruption and its franchise to colonize the Lebanese people and harvest Lebanon's national resources to their own private gain. Hence, while "external colonialists" may come and go from time to time, "internal colonialism" continues in earnest.

It is tragic in deed that many nations of the Third World achieved their political independence by paying a bloody high price only to realize that they did not really become independent and that they badly needed a second independence. For it has been frequently demonstrated that independence from foreign oppression, handicapped by international attention, leaves the newly "liberated" people as easy prey to internal colonialists who yield greater oppression with full impunity and little concern for global public opinion. When independence from foreign military control does not bring about the rule of law to replace the rule of fear, freedom of speech to replace official propaganda through an obedient media, respect for human rights to replace disregard for human dignity, economic development and free quality education to provide employment opportunities and eradicate poverty, and the right to participate in national decision making through a system of democratic representation arising from free general elections, then a second independence becomes urgently needed.

The Lebanese and the better-informed friends of Lebanon know full well that the process of liberating Lebanon from internal colonization is a pre-requisite to achieving the country's second independence and has not taken off yet. The Lebanese and the better-informed friends of Lebanon need no lesson in contemporary Lebanese history to agree that the only way to start this process is for the Lebanese people, and not their various foreign friends and self-styled sponsors, to resolve to become a nation under their republican and democratic constitution, and not to remain subjects and hostages or prisoners of communal colonies absolutely ruled by the Lebanese political establishment. To achieve their second and lasting independence, the people of Lebanon must directly wrestle away their destiny from their own internal colonizers and oppressors who have thrived as the brokers and arbiters of perverted and oppressive communal power in old and contemporary times.

Can the friends of Lebanon be of help in this historic process and how?

Foreign governments that are seriously and sincerely interested in helping Lebanon achieve its second independence can, for a start, firmly resist manipulation by the Lebanese political establishment and refuse to become the new adoptive parents of the same old monster with a baby face who took many other foster parents in the past only to exploit them to its own selfish advantage. For a start, the European governments should insist on the strictest application and observance of Article Two of the Lebanese-European Association Agreement which carries a potent human rights clause. European and American statements re-affirming support for Lebanon's independence should publicly acknowledge that no meaningful independence could be achieved if the country remains victim to its own internal colonialists and adamantly demand that absolute priority be given to structural reforms that swiftly establish the basic conditions for the rule of law and justice with full respect for the constitution and the Universal Declaration.

It is common ground among the Lebanese that the country's political establishment constitutes a formidable impediment to the country's progress towards good governance and progress in all fields. Hence most Lebanese aspire for the retirement or phasing out of the entire political establishment without undue delay. The lesson from not-too-distant European history is compelling. When Europe was liberated from Nazi occupation, none of the politicians who collaborated with the occupiers survived and it was unthinkable that, even former national heroes such as French President Field Marshal Petan, would be spared because he was "compelled to cooperate" under various excuses. In Lebanon, the collaborators, and most of their ancestors, were intimately involved with every occupation of Lebanon since the early part of the Twentieth Century and many since the Nineteenth Century, and yet they now try to wear the mantle of national liberation leaders. This transparent ploy must be equally unacceptable to Lebanese and the better-informed friends of Lebanon alike.

Obviously, the task of phasing out or retiring the entire political establishment is not an easy one and is definitely up to the Lebanese people alone to accomplish. The empowerment of the people on a national non-sectarian basis and the rise of a Lebanese national consciousness are two prerequisites for the success of such task.