Beyond condemnation

By Abdel-Moneim Said *

As the only Arab representative at the rally it was up to me to defend Iraq against American aggression but I must confess that all I felt was an acute sense of humiliation, not just because an Arab country was under attack but because I felt that the other representatives attending the rally, who represented a great part of the world in which we live, held the Arab world in contempt. What they saw, after all, was a community that responded to the American attacks with nothing more than condemnatory rhetoric, a few demonstrations and the burning of US flags.

Returning to the region I found Arab public opinion still seething, and I had the opportunity to examine what the press had said, what statements had been issued and what position the various political parties had adopted.

What I found was depressing. The local response had amounted to little more than a verbal condemnation of the US and Israel and sometimes the whole of the West. The attack had done little to change the status quo; before the planes started bombing Iraq such condemnations were commonplace, during the attack they simply grew a little more loud. And that was that.

A second feature I noted was that after the initial condemnations there was a second wave of condemnation directed at the initial condemnation! This was based on the premise that the time for verbal condemnation had passed and it was now time for action. But none of these critics presented a single coherent idea as to how we might prevent Iraq from once more becoming the testing ground for America's latest weapons' technology.

There was a general diatribe against a US president caught up in personal dilemmas, as if by moralising in such a manner we might be able to return missiles to their launching pads and warplanes to their bases. But what really astonished me was that, amid the plethora of commentary, no one showed the slightest inclination to examine the reality of the Arab situation. No one appeared prepared to offer the slightest analysis of how we had reached such a pitiful level of powerlessness that the land of the Abbassid Caliphate should endure such humiliation.

Nor were we offered any indication of the stand of the Iraqi people vis-à-vis the aggression. The inhabitants of Iraq -- a land where there are no elections, no public opinion polls, no party independent of the political leadership, no free press and no opposition on whose statements one can rely without first discovering who finances the group -- were without voice.

And while there were demands for the expulsion of the US, British and Israeli ambassadors, no one bothered to explain how this might prevent the next air strike against Iraq. Similarly, there were calls for a boycott of American and British goods, though those making such calls appeared impervious to the fact that such a move would serve simply to underline our dependency on the West. Should they be followed our airlines, power stations, factories and farms, all essential to our well being, might soon come to a grinding halt. And what of Iraq itself? Iraq, it transpires, continues to sell oil to the US and imports from it and other Western nations most of its needs within the framework of "oil for food".

At the root of the problem lies a simple fact -- we, in the Arab world, are not taken very seriously because we put all our energy into issuing condemnatory rhetoric rather than engaging in constructive actions. How few, and how shocking, the people who asked in the acres of newsprint given over to the crisis just what we could do to help the Iraqis. It was conveniently ignored that a third of Iraq's income goes towards paying compensation to Arab citizens and that, ending such compensation would noticeably lighten the burdens ordinary Iraqis face. Such action would also have the advantage of signalling to the rest of the world that we are serious in our supporting of Iraq.

Perhaps we have avoided taking such a step because it brings to mind that terrible time when thousands of Arab families fled across the desert after their lives were destroyed by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. But if we really want to move beyond the past it is necessary, surely, that after the obligatory rounds of condemnation we should look into this matter.

Maybe, though, this is perceived as being too difficult in some quarters. It would involve asking Iraq to heal its wounds with Kuwait, to come to terms with the fact that its actions disrupted the livelihood of millions. Yet such an admission of wrong-doing is essential if the torn Arab body is ever to be healed.

Such healing is itself essential, though, if the Arab world is serious about helping to extract Iraq from the vicious circle in which it finds itself with regards to the US. And were such healing to take place, it would allow for the convening of an Arab summit, and the issuing of a joint communiqué exposing the sheer nonsense of Washington's claims that Iraq's neighbours feel that Baghdad constitutes a threat.

But alas, nothing in this vein appeared in the press or in the statements issued by politicians or political parties. The easy path was taken -- the US was condemned and fun poked at its president. Fine-sounding slogans, then, and the daily burning of flags, which may well express anger but which, patently, remain insufficient to resolve an ongoing dilemma.

Surely the time has come when we show the world that, in addition to exercising our vocal chords, we can take positive action in resolving our problems. Doing so is the only way that we can display that we are not just a nation seething with anger but one capable of taking the necessary steps to help ourselves.