AMMAN, 8 April 2003 — The United States and Britain may be winning over hungry and thirsty people in southern Iraq, but they appear to be losing hearts and minds in other parts of the Middle East among Arabs angered at the war on Iraq. Fury — not food — is fueling the response of many Arabs to the US-led war on Iraq which is now in its third week.

“There is a heart!” exclaims a Western soldier, pointing to a disembodied organ on a battlefield strewn with body parts and corpses in a cartoon in Al-Dustour newspaper. “There is a mind!” says another soldier, pointing to a piece of brain.

The “Battle to Win Iraqi Hearts and Minds” cartoon, translated into Arabic from an original by Australia-based artist Nik Scott, conveys the cynicism and anger many Arabs feel about the effects of the US-led war on Iraq, commentators say. Even as tanks and troops swept into Baghdad, forces are remaining behind in the south keen to drive that point home with aid.

But many Arabs even in countries which are close allies of the United States and Britain are up in arms over Iraqi civilian casualties, the thousands of missiles that have bombarded Baghdad, and mistrust over the stated reasons for the war. Some have called for an end to US and British military presence in Gulf states such as Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Others want boycotts of American and British products.

Anti-Western sentiments are often completely unsolicited, even in Jordan, an ally of Washington. “Viva Iraq!” shouts an Arab man from his car window at a group of Western reporters in a cafe in Amman. “Go to hell!” a man shouts at a Western woman on the street. “Don’t tell people you are American!” warns a taxi driver.

“Nobody should buy American products any more,” says a ladies’ apparel shop owner, when asked by two American women if there was a Nine West shoe store in Amman. “The anger is very, very deep,” said a Western-educated upper class Jordanian woman, who declined to be named.

“The Arab people are very angry, frustrated and agitated because (they) chose war as the way to deal with Iraq...” Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told the United Arab Emirates Al-Khaleej newspaper in remarks published on Saturday.

Jordanian political commentator Uraib Rantawi said Arab attitudes have changed “for the worse. Anti-Americanism has increased by seeing checkpoints and civilian casualties in Iraq. If they (United States and Britain) want to keep their long-term interests and partnerships in the Middle East, they cannot export democracy by Apache helicopter. It will all depend on public opinion at the end of the day.”

From street protests to mosques to markets, the public opinion of which Rantawi speaks is so far not promising. “There’s nothing to rejoice when Saddam is removed because the US is going to install a puppet government in Baghdad to serve its interests. We won’t see peace as they promise but a new wave of violence,” said Suleiman Ahmed, a teacher in Oman.

Abdul-Latif Janahi, a banker in Bahrain, said he thinks the war “is aiming at controlling its (Iraq’s) oil resources.” The reaction could turn violent. Rantawi suggested the closeness of southern Iraqis to the soldiers was opportunistic. “I think with water and food they can win their stomachs, but not their hearts and minds.” A recent Jordan Times editorial echoed the idea that loyalty can easily be bought among those who are hungry. “Washington’s war to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis” was “blackmailing people into accepting food from the hands of invading soldiers, or starving to death.”

Syria’s Foreign Minister Farouk Shara said in an interview published yesterday that the United States had lost the Iraq war “politically and morally” and that the conflict would bring chaos and catastrophe. “Even if the United States wins the war in one or two weeks, one or two months, one or two years, it already has lost it politically and morally,” he told Milan’s Corriere della Sera newspaper. Syria is the only Arab member of the United Nations Security Council.

“They have lost the respect of the international community. They have lost it on the streets of the world, from Los Angeles to Jakarta, from London to Sydney,” he said. Shara repeated Syrian rejections of accusations by Washington that Damascus was helping terrorists. “This war is, and will be, a catastrophe, and afterward, I see chaos,” he said.

“The United States will face huge problems in Iraq and there will be chaos in the entire region,” Shara was quoted as saying. “No one wants an American military administration in Iraq.” He claimed that Washington’s policy in the Middle East was very influenced by the country’s powerful “Jewish lobby” and denied claims that his government was assisting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. “Everyone knows that relations between Damascus and Baghdad have been strained for 20 years,” he said. “But Iraq is an Arab country, we share the same history, we are neighbors and Israel considers us as enemies.”

“They (the Americans) don’t know the region. They don’t even know how the oil wells operate. They think Iraq is like Texas,” Shara said.