With Saddam's fall, Arabs may see the light

NY Daily News ^ | December 18 2003 | WALID PHARES

[knighthawk]

Saddam Hussein's capture is cause for celebration, but his story must be seen in a larger context. It is part of the continuing and profoundly troubled saga of Arab nationalism.

In the decades after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, liberal impulses were crushed by self-styled Arab nationalists. Instead of working for social development, democracy and freedom for minorities, rulers erected dictatorships and declared themselves the new Saladin.

Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, Moammar Khadafy of Libya, Hafez Assad of Syria, Yasser Arafat of Palestine, Hassan Turabi of Sudan and Saddam of Iraq - each thought he was the unique savior of the Arabs.

Their existence was legitimized by one word: honor - the honor of the Arab people. Regimes attacked one another, killed, tortured, raped - all in the name of Arab honor.

Khadafy invaded neighboring Chad, Assad occupied Lebanon, Arafat sought to subvert Jordan and Turabi attempted to cleanse southern Sudan while millions died, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

Wars were started with Israel that could never be won because of honor. Women were deprived of basic rights because of honor. Students were suppressed because of honor. When critics and reformers tried to raise these issues either internally or internationally, they were accused of injuring Arab honor.

After Saddam's capture, followers of Arab nationalism and jihadism raged. They condemned the images shown on television of their leader because they still identify him with the cause of Arab honor.

But he is not the Arab world, and the game is over. Millions of Iraqi men and women have been liberated: 14 million Shiites, 4million Kurds, 2 million Assyrians and Turkomen.

Arabs in Iraq and Kuwait and many other places are beginning to raise their voices. Saddam now embarrasses many of those who were pleased with his ambitions. He pledged Arab unity yet attacked Kuwait, a brother Arab country. He vowed to destroy Israel but waged war with Iran instead. He lived off a legend of courage yet did not die fighting, like his sons Uday and Qusay.

So where is the honor that the commentators of Al Jazeera TV demand for the region? To his millions of innocent victims, Saddam is the embodiment of the dishonor imposed upon the Arabs by their dictators.

Phares teaches Middle East studies at Florida Atlantic University and is an MSNBC analyst on the Mideast and terrorism.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Puppage]

Here's a little light for ya...

[demlosers]

Pan-Arab nationism has been dying since Nasser died, and with Saddam's downfall, you can stick a fork in it.

[river rat]

Not a chance!

The Jihadist lunatics won't see the light until you rip their eyelids off......
Or, have the flash of light from a nuclear burst to burn through....

Semper Fi

[tkathy]

I don't see the leftist western lunatics seeing the light until a dirty bomb has destroyed one of our cities.

[Billthedrill]

The general Arab public is slowly seeing the light, the problem is that they're still being brutally repressed for saying so. But I don't care if the jihadists see the light and I doubt if they ever will. They need to feel the heat.

[LibWhacker]

And even then they won't. They'll blame it on Bush.

[CaptRon]

Their existence was legitimized by one word: honor - the honor of the Arab people.

We keep hearing a lot of abouth this Arab honor thing. Please tell me what kind of a sense of honor decries pictures of a dental check-up being done but blithely accepts sneak attacks on civilians or attacking our troops and then hiding in a group of schoolgirls.

The arabs sense of honor is like Democrat politics; all for show but deep down there is no real principle.

[Check_Your_Premises]

Don't bet on it. To them it will be a just reaction by an oppressed people against the evil, imperialist oppressor.

[hunter112]

I'd like to see more light than heat used in the Middle East myself, but only one thing in history gives me hope that Bush's plan is going to work. The nations of Western Europe were among the most warlike on the earth for many centuries, we certainly witnessed the two most terrible wars on the face of the planet occurring there. Now, we can't even get them off their ass to fight when its in their interests. Britain, France, Spain, Russia and Germany have fought each other for the mainland of Europe for so very many years, surely, a person brought from 200 years ago by a time machine would be astonished at the peace that exists.

If Bush pulls it off, without triggering nuclear war, and in fifty years from now we have a peaceful Middle East, where Islam is just a quaint ancient custom practiced fervently only by a fringe, it will be one of the United States' greatest accomplishments of the 21st Century. Surely, we did the same thing in the 20th Century with Europe.

[Cicero]

They will never see the light until Madrassas everywhere stop teaching little kids to hate Jews, hate the West, and believe that Allah will reward Jihaddists. And that isn't happening anytime soon. We need to bring down Iran and Syria at a minimum, and we need to break up Saudi Arabia and separate the oil money from the fanatics. We also need to deal with Egypt, our supposed ally, which is the source of a great deal of this poison and continues to teach its children to hate us.

[knighthawk]

Look at #3!

[mercy]

Arab Honor. Makes me laugh just to see those two words juxtaposed.

Honor to an Arab means who is the better liar, theif, murderer.

[Travis McGee]

We're going to find out, sooner or later,

If Abdul will pray, to a glowing crater.

[js1138]

Arab nationalism is not the problem. It's Arab socalism and Arab totalitarianism that's the problem. The whole mess is a leftover from the cold war. Arab leaders chose marxism over capitalism as a way of insuring their hold on power. Now the devil's to pay.

[knighthawk]

LOL!

[highlander_UW]

Not a chance!

The Jihadist lunatics won't see the light until you rip their eyelids off...... Or, have the flash of light from a nuclear burst to burn through....

I don't even need to read the article to arrive at this conclusion. I debate/discuss many issues with Muslims...no brainer here.

[tubavil]

You are correct. Unfortunately the way the 'war' is being run, we're more likely to see that flash in the continental 48 instead of mecca, medina, or qum.

[kennyboy509]

eye don tink so.

ya know their heads iz 90% scull and 10% brams.