Animosity here to stay
While fires rage on Baghdad's horizon, Arabs and Muslims are subjected to a concerted media campaign comprising conflicting reports about the US-British invasion of Iraq. What is entirely clear, however, is that fighting has become fiercer and the number of victims of urban warfare in Iraqi cities is on the rise. Images of bloodshed are accumulating in the collective psyche of the Arabs, leaving an indelible imprint on the mind of every adult -- politicised and apolitical alike. In the short run, this will breed hatred towards the invaders; nonetheless, the consequences of this festering anger will have to be faced by the US and Britain in the near future.
It is not only the humanitarian ramifications of the war that the Arabs find appalling, but the political ones as well. They have seen the major powers conspire against a sovereign country with the aim of looting its oil wealth. At the same time, these powers defend the security of a misbegotten state implanted in the midst of the Arab nation at the expense of the Palestinians.
When the dust of this conflict settles, which is unlikely to happen with the ease the invaders envisaged, the Arab world will not return to the way it was before. Deep- rooted anger will not only be expressed in acts like those in New York and Washington -- paid for in innocent blood. Instead, those in London and Washington who masterminded and marketed the war to a deceived public will witness dire consequences within the next few generations.
Occupation will reopen conflicts between Shi'ites and Sunnis, the Kurds and others, the sons of Tikrit, Ba'athists and the scores of opposition political groups that lived many years in exile. Indeed, fostering divisiveness will be central to the rule of the alien regime.
The Arabs' humiliation will be compounded when the US High Commissioner and his American and British aides are seated in Baghdad. They will exploit the country's oil wealth, decide who will rule, who will be imprisoned and who will be exiled all in the aim of serving their own interests. Pictures of the American Jay Garner and President Bush will appear on television and in the press to replace those of Saddam Hussein and Al-Sahhaf. Regardless of the type of regime the occupiers impose, suspicion and accusations of treachery will follow it everywhere, and it will be difficult for any Arab country to recognise it.
American rule in Iraq will likely be bitter. No one believes Tony Blair's statements or Bush's allusions to Iraqi self-rule once Saddam is out of the picture. Nobody believes American pledges of a short occupation that will end with a complete pull-out of US forces. So far, US and British promises of liberating Iraq from Saddam's grip without causing civilian casualties have been exposed as lies. In fact, the number of Iraqi civilians killed surpasses casualties among Saddam's soldiers and militias.
Attempts to delude the Arab masses that the groundwork is being laid for a resolution of the Palestinian issue and that the "roadmap" will be implemented as soon as Abu-Mazen forms a new government, ring hollow. The Palestinians and Arabs know that Anglo-European pressure will not change the goals of Bush and Sharon. Blair's attempts to demonstrate a semblance of political balance between attacking Iraq and resolving the Palestinian issue are pointless. They lost all credibility once it became clear that bombing Iraq was a prerequisite for implementing the roadmap.
Anger is mounting in the Arab street, although it is probably not reflected in its full force in the marches, demonstrations and opposition movements suppressed by governments in the region However, such rage is not dissipating, but is festering in the Arab psyche. When popular anger does erupt, the losses for Arab regimes, the world and Anglo/American-Arab relations could go well beyond current expectations and manifest themselves for generations to come.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 10 -16 April 2003 (Issue No. 633)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/633/op4.htm