I highly respect the Lebanese army but I really wish I could meet the guy who sets up those random meaningless checkpoints from time to time.

Every time I go North, I try to leave as early as possible in order to avoid traffic on the way back. Since it’s Ramadan now, we decided to leave yesterday Qoubayat at exactly 6:30 pm to be in Tripoli around the Iftar time so that we won’t face any traffic. We reached Tripoli by 7:15 pm and all went great until we reached Nahr el Ibrahim road and stopped moving.

I thought to myself it’s an accident but after 42 minutes, we were surprised to see an army checkpoint letting people through without even searching them or looking inside the car.

Knowing that there are more than 4 exits before reaching the checkpoint, and that the Madfoun checkpoint is only few kilometers back, what’s the purpose of this checkpoint?

If there are some criminals or terrorists coming their way, they could have easily parked and waited for the checkpoint to be dismantled or simply use the maritime road.