Osama SharShar ✍️
I was very happy to meet the youth of Egypt at Sadat University, and my happiness increased even more that the topic of the meeting was about the glorious October victory and the lessons learned from it.
The truth that enemies acknowledge before friends is that the October 1973 war was a decisive battle in the history of modern warfare, and changed many military constants and theories. Both the Egyptian officer and soldier were able, with great genius, strong faith in God, and pure love for the homeland, to break the impossible, and to break all the myths that the Israeli enemy promoted about itself, that its army is invincible, and that its fortresses are impregnable and cannot be penetrated.
So the youth of Egypt from the Egyptian Armed Forces came armed with unwavering determination, and they broke the arrogance of the enemy, and they were able, with simple ideas and complex implementation, to regain the land and dignity, and to raise the Egyptian flag on the beloved land of Sinai.
It was not a surprise to me that the Egyptian youth at Sadat University are following with interest what is happening in our Arab region, especially in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen, as well as what is happening between Iran and Israel. I believe that Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa was able to restore the momentum deserved for the Palestinian cause in the whole world, but more importantly, it was able to restore interest in the cause among Arab youth.
I personally followed the campaigns carried out by Egyptian youth, especially university and school youth, to boycott Western products that support the Zionist entity, and these campaigns cost companies huge losses amounting to billions of dollars.
Modern wars have become wars of minds and not just wars of weapons. The enemy spreads rumors and lies among us using social media to destroy the morale of citizens, and targets its enemies using its own means of communication (Pager), and artificial intelligence targets children, women and fighters alike. The matter has become very dangerous; To the point that some countries now have entire branches whose mission is modern cyber warfare and confronting attempts to target infrastructure through viruses or hacks, or influencing youth through social media.
We are living in an age of absurdity, where a person can spread a rumor with the push of a button on a mobile phone. The Egyptian state must create an integrated system to protect Egyptian awareness from being affected by rumors and lies promoted by Egypt’s enemies abroad and even at home; because our youth are the standard-bearers of the future, and they must be protected from destructive ideas that target them and we must not leave them prey to our enemies.
In fact, we must make teaching technology to students in all sectors a national strategy, as technology has become the weapon of the age, which represents a shield and a sword for its owner, and it can also represent a large source of income that does not require huge financial investments or a large infrastructure, but it only needs well-educated people and wise management.
I was keen to advise the male and female students present from 9 faculties at Sadat University to study modern technology, because it is their primary means of success and excellence. I even suggested to the faculty to adopt the idea of creating applications for Egyptian tourist sites that work with virtual reality glasses, and with a simple subscription not exceeding 10 dollars or euros. We have hundreds of millions of tourists who do not find time to visit Egypt, and this application is their gateway to achieving the dream of visiting these Egyptian tourist and archaeological sites while they are in their homes, and it brings tens of billions of dollars into Egypt.
I told the young people present, after opening the floor for questions, that the social media war is very dangerous for the awareness of young people, and that there is a major media decline that was the reason for our lack of knowledge of many of the heroics of the October War, although they were youth epics, including, for example, the idea of Lieutenant Colonel Baqi Zaki using water pumps to destroy the earthen barrier along the canal line, which is the idea that was one of the keys to victory. We must open the door for young people to present their ideas and listen to them with interest; perhaps the entire future is hanging on one idea.
I stressed to the youth that the strategic deception plan that President Sadat had put in place was accompanied by a great psychological deception plan; to the point that no one knew when the war would happen except for a few fingers on one hand, but the Egyptian people’s faith in their armed forces and that they are the shield and sword of this nation was a firm faith, so the moment of victory came as planned.
A scenario ran through my head during the meeting: What if President Mohamed Anwar Sadat was among us now? What messages would he have sent to the youth of Egypt?
I think he would have said that the October 1973 victory was a battle of dignity and pride, but it was also a lesson in the importance of knowledge and work, the benefit of continuous training, and careful planning, and that we must learn from the lessons of the past to achieve the dreams of the future.
Finally, we can only recite Al-Fatihah for the martyrs of the October War, the martyrs of the Gaza Flood, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the martyrs of proud Lebanon.
