December 14, 2003
THE UNCOMMON ENEMY:
Saddam an Important Symbol in the Arab World (Joyce M. Davis, December 14, 2003, Knight-Ridder)
When American troops invaded Baghdad last spring, Iraqis rushed to topple statues of Saddam. It was a pivotal, yet for some Arabs humiliating, moment in the region's history.The rampaging Iraqi men didn't rid themselves of Saddam's evil; they needed American Marines to do that for them. Other Arab leaders didn't send armies to liberate the Iraqi people; President Bush did. And even the feared Islamic jihadees (holy warriors), for all their threats of suicide bombs and terrorism, proved too weak to defeat the Arab leader they hated most.
The fact that it was hated Israel's friend and protector that toppled Saddam wasn't lost on millions of Arabs.
As a result, according to Suleiman Nyang, a political scientist at Howard University in Washington, although Saddam wasn't beloved in the Arab world, his demise is seen in the Middle East and beyond as another sign of Arab weakness and degradation at the hands of the West.
"If it is a humiliation for the Arab people, it is one that Arabs themselves are accountable for," he said. "It is unfortunate that a guy like Saddam Hussein should have remained in power for so long. The Arab people don't fight for their freedom the way other people fight for freedom."
And any gratitude for what the United States did expired quickly, as attacks against American troops picked up speed amid popular discontent at the sight of U.S. soldiers patrolling Iraqi streets and neighborhoods.
"It is a very painful experience that the Arabs are undertaking," said Clovis Maksoud, a former Arab League ambassador to the United States and the United Nations. "There will be a lot of soul searching, a period of ferment. Profound changes are going to take place." [...]
Yet with Saddam's regime relegated to history, the danger is that Iraqis and other Arabs will see a common enemy in the Americans who destroyed him, and keep fighting to end their occupation of Iraq.
We are the enemy; that's what even our own neo-isolationists don't seem to get. Because of the globalization of American values we are a constant threat to every totalitarian system of thought. You'd think the Buchananeers and the ANSWERs and the Dean supporters would at least be troubled by the realization that 9-11 came at the end of a decade of relative American withdrawal from the world, a period which--except for minor dust-ups like Somalia and Kosovo--saw us slash defense budgets, ignore threats abroad, and wallow in the resulting prosperity. It's all well and good to have discovered the End of History and to beam it nightly intoevery yurt, wikiup, and chateau on Earth, but we have to expect folks to take the news that the end is our system and not theirs with more than a little anger. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 14, 2003 5:06 PM
"It is a very painful experience that the Arabs are undertaking."
Yep. You can feel their pain.
"There will be a lot of soul searching, a period of ferment. Profound changes are going to take place."
Sorry. Wouldn't bet on it. Simply becaue when (Moslem) Arabs suffer, it's because they haven't been good enough Moslems. Which makes Allah angry. Which means that the only answer is to be better, more fundamentalist Moslems.
Here we go again....
Posted by: Barry Meislin at December 14, 2003 5:24 PMBarry makes a good point which leads to what is bugging me. The quickly forming opinion that it is good that Saddam was taken alive dada dada.
Am I the only person thinking that it would be best if he was dead. As long as he is alive I see nothing beneficial that is going to occur. What is the likely senario other than him providing a positive symbol to people opposing the US. The better symbol would be that if you oppose the US you are a corpse. Are we going to have to listen to an Arab Johnny Cochran for the next two years.
Here are the good things about it...
1) He looks pathetic. Anger is not the worst thing an Arab can feel about you. The worst thing is contempt. He looks utterly pathetic.
2) He, like so many other Arab "leaders", mouths off about sacrifice for Allah and the nation, and when his chance comes..... uh huh. That gets noticed, big time.
3) Right as election season is hot here, the other big story will be a judicial litany of the evils he has committed, listed for days on end.
4) Every single Democrat, activist, and nation that opposed this effort will have that litiany in their faces. Then THEY will have to answer before much of the world.
Those are some of the advantages.
Posted by: Andrew X at December 14, 2003 7:41 PMI wouldn't bet on it, either, Barry. The reaction of the Arabs is not going to be "everything we have believed for 1400 years was wrong, let us all embrace Judeo-Christianity." Or even, "let us divest our Morlock religion of its inhuman elements and try to get along with the 5/6ths of the world that does not kowtow to Allah."
Every hundred years or so, something happens to cow the Moslems from the goal of oppressing the dar al-Harb. Around 1700 it was the repulse at Vienna followed shortly by the demise of the last Muslim potentate who had a really powerful army.
In 1798, it was the Battle of the Pyramids. In 1898 Omdurman. In 2003, Bush.
They'll be back. Maybe, given the pace of modern life, in a lot less than 100 years.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 14, 2003 8:11 PMFor the Arabs outside Iraq, nothing is going to change soon. But for the Iraqis, the experience of living in freedom will start to change attitudes.
And as Iraq prospers and the rest of the Middle East suffers, attitudes will eventually change there too.
Posted by: pj at December 14, 2003 8:37 PM"And even the feared Islamic jihadees (holy warriors), for all their threats of suicide bombs and terrorism, proved too weak to defeat the Arab leader they hated most."
What parallel universe is this reporter living in? I am unaware of any resistance movement of suicide bombers and terrorists who have been trying to overthrow Saddam.
Posted by: jd watson at December 14, 2003 11:28 PM"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
P.B. Shelley
Posted by: genecis at December 15, 2003 10:30 AMOrrin's comment "we are the enemy" got me to thinking that it may be true, just not in the way he meant it. Most foreigners get their ideas of America from either the movies we export or the professors in the Universities they come to Americe to attend. Both are dominated by America-hating liberals... no wonder they hate us, the people they've been "learning" from hate us too.
Barry's got a good point, Too. Saddam with a cruel barbaric bastard, but not a particularly observant Muslim. the hardcore fundamentals are as likely to attribute Saddam's failure to his not being a devout than picking a fight with America.
Then again, if freedom and Democracy take root in Iraq, the regular citizens might prefer it to the Mullahs.
Posted by: MarkD at December 15, 2003 9:56 PM