So, you write editorials for the Arab News, and I have to admit, it has been a tough week for you. After weeks of watching Al-Jazeera and reading the NY Times, you were probably convinced that the last bloodied American infidel to limp out of the region any day now.
“We discovered that all what the (Iraqi) information minister was saying was all lies,” said Ali Hassan, a government employee in Cairo, Egypt. “Now no one believes Al-Jazeera anymore.”
In a live report from Baghdad, correspondent Shaker Hamed of Abu Dhabi Television said:”We are all in shock. How did things come to such an end? How did U.S. tanks enter the center of the city? Where is the resistance? This collapse is puzzling. Was it the result of the collapse of communications between the commanders? Between the political leadership? How come Baghdad falls so easily.” – via Ken Layne
Reality REALLY starts to set in when the statue of Hussein in the center of Baghdad is toppled by jubilant Iraqi’s and American soldiers (Goran Tomasevic – Reuters):
Things are really unsettling, now. Arabs cheering Americans, in Arab territory? Only one way to deal with this- the same way you deal with everything in the Middle East- blame it on the Jews:
For the Iraqi people to be rid of a tyrant only then to be vulnerable to exploitation by the conservative Zionist junta who have taken over the White House is merely for them to be thrown from the frying pan into the fire. The Iraqi people, like everyone else, deserve to be the masters of their own destiny.
Robert Stevens
John,
While the Arab News editorial position that the “…US administration which is itself propped up by those greedy for Iraqs oil and spurred on by their desire for a secure Israel” is the same old same old, I do have to give the Arab News good marks for presenting at least one piece by a Muslim that doesn’t mouth the Islamic “America is ruled by a Zionist cabal” cliche.
In his “Road to Jerusalem Is Through Baghdad” Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, Editor in Chief of the London based Asharq Al-Awsat, advises Palestinians to take Washington at its word when it says it wants a solution to the Palestinian problem.
QUOTE – Americans have witnessed a series of events, among them the abortive peace process, Israel’s inability to continue the occupation without exacting a high price, and the awakening of the world — similar to its awakening to apartheid in South Africa — to the necessity of righting evident wrongs. All these may push Washington toward a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and, more specifically, the creation of a Palestinian state. Palestinians are wrong to think the American promises are worthless. They have a real chance that they must not let slip away. – END QUOTE
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24065
Refreshing isn’t it. Al-Rashid also has a piece in the same Arab News edition you linked to.
In ‘”Saddam Did Not Fall Alone”’ al-Rashid says:
QUOTE – And I say with confidence that the collapse of Saddam and his regime was not an important event itself, because it was bound to fall sooner or later, caused either by the Americans and British missiles or by the Iraqis’ swords; but the real event was challenging Arab political and cultural certainties. This was one of the rare times that they were examined and then disappeared into thin air. The same media succeeded in ignoring what had happened in Basra and had described the rejoicing there as a matter of depredation.
However, the picture was much bigger in the capital and it was not possible to conceal the truth, which was apparent to the whole world.
The populist rejoicing in the capital over Saddam’s overthrow ridiculed the Arab regimes, which have been lying in the name of the people for 50 or more years. – END QUOTE
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=24987
Too bad Asharq Al-Awsat doesn’t publish an English version, huh?
John Cole
Good Stuff.