We can say what we want about the war now being waged in Iraq. Each position taken toward it has its own arguments, and from this cacophony of opinions perhaps the truth will emerge in the end.
The Anglo-American war on Iraq may be illegal because it was entered into without the agreement of the international community as represented by the Security Council of the United Nations. It might be called an aggression, the ulterior motives for which are not difficult to discover. The pretense of liberating the Iraqi people may be a smoke screen for the arrogant exercise of power, or for the personal goals of the American president, or those of the cabal surrounding him whose aims are unrelated to US national interests.
The aims, justifications and incentives of this military expedition are all open to speculation. But we should not forget that Saddam Hussein and his men have committed unprecedented crimes against the Iraqi people and the Arabs, competing in acts of ruthlessness surpassing in evil even those of the tyrants of the past. They have killed their own people with chemicals and insecticides and carried out mass executions. They have driven the people of the country from their land. They have plundered Iraq and wasted its wealth. All of this we must remember when we criticize the American invasion. America’s blinkered aggression must not blind us to the possibility that, for a period however brief, the Iraqi people may finally become the sovereign of their own country.
I have encountered anti-American sentiment from Arabs and non-Arabs alike. The emotion can reach such heights that it can transform even Saddam Hussein into a hero, particularly given the emotional nature of the Arab masses. This sensitive chord has often been manipulated by Arab leaders. These are the men who have brought upon their people untold misery. These “heroes” of the Arab world understand the enigma of the masses and the ways to their hearts. But it is they who drive their people down a dead-end road, where all their projects come to nothing and their disasters reach epic proportions. At that point of crisis, these Arab leaders call the people to battle against this and that, imperialism, infidels, Israel or America; anything, so long as it will galvanize the masses and provide a way out of the crisis, transforming the leader into a hero whose name the people shout with passion, even when previously they have likened him to a worm-eaten tree.
This is a brief history of the Arab masses, a history that repeats itself again and again and in which we are all implicated. Let us therefore not hate America or anyone else who acts hatefully, lest our hatred of others lead to the glorification of tyrants and despots. For that glorification puts them back where they used to be, with the power to cut off our heads and steal our livelihood and return us to the way we were. Assuming, of course, we are still alive.
Arab News Opinion 29 March 2003
