On Sunday, Lebanese celebrated their annual Independence Day…

A grand military parade was held to mark the 66th anniversary of the country’s independence. Six Hawker Hunter jets took part in the parade, performing low-level acrobatics. Columns of soldiers and officers, military tanks, armored personnel carriers and missile launchers have paraded through Shafiq Wazzan Ave. Then, President Michel Sleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri took part in the nearly two-hour festivities.

This is, in brief, how Lebanon officially celebrated the 66th Independence Day: the President, the Speaker and the Prime Minister standing, smiling and receiving “congratulations.”

Sixty-six years have passed on the Independence… Yet, nothing has changed and the same “slogans” are heard every year, raising lots of “question marks” about the “true independence.”

Sixty-six years of ‘independence’ have passed, and Lebanese seem to be always awaiting the non-achieved ‘true independence’…

Indeed, what independence is that when a part of the Lebanese territory is still under occupation? What independence is the independence that doesn’t prevent occupation and even more doesn’t put an end to the Israeli continuous threats? How do Lebanese celebrate ‘independence’ when they pledge to ‘liberate’ their occupied territories by all possible means at the time some Lebanese are still ‘seeking’ to prevent the ‘legitimization’ of the principle of Resistance?

How do Lebanese celebrate 66 years of ‘independence’ while acknowledging their ‘failure’ in administering their own affairs? How do they celebrate independence at the time they admit they’re unable to resolve any internal crisis without the world’s interference? Did they forget how they lived without a Head of State for months just because they were ‘divided’? Did they forget how they failed to organize “dialogue” and waited for French, Qatari, Saudi and Syrian initiatives to resolve their internal crises?

What independence is that when external powers are insisting on interfering and meddling in every Lebanese detail? What independence is that when the external powers are “promising” to intensify visits to Lebanon during the few coming months? What independence is that when Lebanese are acknowledging they still need international initiative to solve a Lebanese government and still betting on external reconciliations to produce a policy statement?

These are legitimate questions that should be raised on the Independence Day in Lebanon, especially that when annexed to other days of Resistance, Liberation and Victory…

But one question remains obligatory… When would True Independence happen?