The Free Patriotic Movement faithful have for the most part sided with the General since the tail end of the Civil War and throughout his exile that followed.

Many people religiously follow a specific political party, and take pride in their beliefs. However the case with Aoun is different, since he is the face, the voice, the past, present and future of the political party. Aoun is not a young man anymore, yet he does not seem the least bit interested in relinquishing any control over his party to the next leader. Which begs the question, who are the potential candidates to replace the aging former General?

It doesn't seem like any of his followers are interested in an alternative. The classic slogan chanted by party members is "Aoun ou bass" which translates to "only Aoun". Interestingly, one of the slogans being chanted on Wednesday's demonstration was "Allah, Hizbullah, Aoun ou bass" meaning "only God, Hizbullah and Aoun." What an interesting trio!

Aoun's alliance with Hizbullah is a testament to how strong his followers will support anything he does. To say that Aoun's party vehemently opposed Hizbullah for over a decade would be an understatement. When Aoun found he needed the militia's support for political maneuvering, his followers approved rank and file. Case in point - what would happen to President Bush's followers if the administration decided to endorse a woman's right to choose? Not to compare Hizbullah to abortions, but the switch is of similar magnitude.

In the case of President Bush, or any other world leader for that matter, such a major u-turn would lead the bulk of his supporters to move on to another Republican candidate. In the case of Aoun, who is the alternative for the FPM? Has the General created a one man party that he plans to live and die with?

To better understand the Aoun faithful, I visited the party's online discussion forum. One of the senior members of the online community had the following post to rally support:

A few weeks ago, we asked the people to get ready... to get ready for a wage of desperate actions and reactions by the government and whoever is standing behind it... To get ready to face their choices: Surrender and leave and die, or fight, hand in hand, for our future, our dignity and for the dignity of all the martyrs who fell on the battlefield in which our great future was trying to incarnate.

Now... And after everything started appearing clear in front of the eyes of the people... I may ask: People... Are you ready?

All the parameters and factors are showing that the forces of evil are following the path of collapse, the same path their masters of Anjar and Damascus have followed before they collapse.

Now that the people have sent their warning on May 10th... and sooner or later, the whole dark cloud will pass over and the dictatorship we are living in will collapse under the feet of the Free Patriots.

What happened to campaigning on democracy and putting an end to corruption? Another party member explains the rationale behind Wednesday's protests:

The reason why most of the people went to the streets is simple:

HA [Hizbullah] went to the streets in order to keep on living in their state within a state, to keep their weapons and to support to get GMA [General Michel Aoun] as the next president and also to support the Syrian orders to make pressure on March 14 to break down the government.

FPM went to the streets to support GMA to get him to be the next president no more no less.

A few percentage of people was yesterday in the streets to oppose the economic reforms rather mainly they went down to keep their interests and it was mainly a political demonstration.

As was suspected in a previous article published by Ya Libnan, the whole protest against tax increases was really a cover for the real pressing issue - making Aoun president at any cost.

Source: Ya Libnan

Aoun provides an autograph to one of his supporters

Aoun's new party symbol - the check mark - has given his followers creative new ways to express their support.

Aoun has given the color orange new life in Lebanon.