The Arab press throughout the world has not ceased reporting, reviewing, commenting on and analyzing the dramatic American capture of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. In general, the press outlets of those nations that suffered because of Saddam expressed joy. Yet nearly all of the Arab media - pro- and anti-Saddam - considered his capture a disgrace for the Arab nation as a whole.
One of the groups that supported Saddam Hussein most enthusiastically during his reign, and after, was the Arabs living in the Palestinian Authority. Their press reflected this attitude. The Al-Quds daily lamented the capture, regardless of the nature of the former Iraqi regime, saying “The sad and shameful aspect of all this is that it was the United States that brought about these developments... the violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, the loss of national independence and the transfer of power to the occupation authorities.”
More to the point, a columnist for the PA’s Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper wrote, on December 18, “When the aggression began, the traitors danced at the tune of every bomb falling on their country.... When the tragic fall of Baghdad took place and it became the second Arab capital to fall under occupation after Jerusalem, the traitors considered it an official holiday. ...When the resistance started in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad, the traitors, spies, and mercenaries, began to compete with one another in maligning and cursing their own people. They began to say day and night this is terrorism; it is not resistance; these are mercenaries, they are not revolutionaries.” He then addressed those rejoicing at the end of the Iraqi dictatorial regime: “This is your day, traitors. Dance to the tune of Bush’s drums and time your prayers on Sharon’s trumpet. But remember that the Arab masses, especially in great Iraq, may have their back to the wall but they know that you are the enemy. The dustbin of history will be the eternal fate of the enemies of Iraq Iraq the glorious martyr that will be resurrected by the resistance.”
The new Iraqi press, in contrast, expressed relief: “Saddam and his regime have gone without regret and God’s will has been fulfilled,” according to the Baghdad daily Al-Furat’s December 18 edition. Likewise, Azaman, another Iraqi daily commented, “Saddam’s capture opens a window of hope in a new Iraq that is marked by growing transparency a far cry from our past tainted by secret police cells into which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis disappeared.... Saddam... has provided ample evidence that he was a sham.... a coward who does not even dare to defend himself like any man would have done in a similar situation.... [He] was a man who was defeated several times, but maintained his power through operations of collective assassination of his own citizens, who for years were forced to endure persecution, torture and a total lack of freedom, up until April 9.”
Khabat, the news and views bulletin of the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), out of Irbil, Iraq, carried a column that noted that Saddam, “who for decades killed millions of people in the name of Arab nationalism and who urged Arabs to be forever ready to sacrifice themselves for national pride, hid himself in a pit just for the sake of an hour more of life. In the end he sacrificed a heroic death in favor of the life of prisoner.” Examining this phenomenon psychologically, the Azaman December 16 editorial continued, “This revelation about his true nature explains his aggressive behavior toward the Iraqi people, as well as the Arabs and the Muslims.” Khabat concluded, “Let us hope that Saddam was the last deceiver of Arabs.”
The press of Kuwait was, as might be expected, equally jubilant. On December 18, Kuwait’s former Oil Minister Ali al-Baghli summed up his feelings, in an article for the English-language Kuwaiti Arab Times, thus: “[D]espite the noise around us [condemning the capture]... from the bottom of our hearts we say God bless America.” Al-Baghli wrote that the capture “was possible due to the determination, effort and sacrifices” made by the United States. The former Kuwaiti official went on to note that, following Saddam’s 1991 invasion, his own country “was rebuilt without the help of Arabs, most of whom, in any case, were supporting Saddam.”
In a December 15 editorial, Kuwait’s A-Siyassa called Saddam Hussein a “devil” and “one of the worst criminals mankind has ever seen.... a coward who continues to cling to life even in the most humiliating circumstances. ...If he had an ounce of pride and self-respect, he would have shot himself in the head and avoided humiliation and shame for himself and for the Arabs.”
Also commenting the week of Saddam’s capture, the Syrian A-Thawra wrote,“One of the most difficult periods for the Iraqi people and the Arab nation came to an end yesterday.” At the same time, the newspaper commented, “It is a painful time as we witness a foreign occupation force solving an Iraqi problem for its own benefits and interests.” Expressing similar sentiments, but oblivious to Iraqis’ public reactions, the Algerian Liberte newspaper printed an opinion piece that Saddam’s capture “is completely insignificant for a people who have undergone a transition from dictatorship to colonization.”
In Lebanon, a columnist for the A-Nahar newspaper wrote December 16 that Saddam Hussein “especially deserves to remain alive instead of being shot dead and going down in history as a hero after all the blood he spilled.” One day earlier, the Lebanese A-Safir newspaper carried an opinion piece that expressed the hope that “the Iraqi leader’s final demise would prevent the birth of another Saddam in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world.” Similarly, another Lebanese commentator, writing in Al-Anwar, commented, “[W]hen Saddam Hussein was caught, this marked the end of the legend.”
The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi summed up the general reaction in the Arab world in a December 15 editorial: “It was a shock to us and a disgrace to millions of other Arabs as they followed the television shots of the Iraqi president submitting to the disgraceful American medical check up. We had hoped that he would resist to the last and in the process fall as a martyr, as his two sons and his grandson did, or take Hitler’s way out by shooting himself in the head or swallowing poison.”
One of the groups that supported Saddam Hussein most enthusiastically during his reign, and after, was the Arabs living in the Palestinian Authority. Their press reflected this attitude. The Al-Quds daily lamented the capture, regardless of the nature of the former Iraqi regime, saying “The sad and shameful aspect of all this is that it was the United States that brought about these developments... the violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, the loss of national independence and the transfer of power to the occupation authorities.”
More to the point, a columnist for the PA’s Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper wrote, on December 18, “When the aggression began, the traitors danced at the tune of every bomb falling on their country.... When the tragic fall of Baghdad took place and it became the second Arab capital to fall under occupation after Jerusalem, the traitors considered it an official holiday. ...When the resistance started in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad, the traitors, spies, and mercenaries, began to compete with one another in maligning and cursing their own people. They began to say day and night this is terrorism; it is not resistance; these are mercenaries, they are not revolutionaries.” He then addressed those rejoicing at the end of the Iraqi dictatorial regime: “This is your day, traitors. Dance to the tune of Bush’s drums and time your prayers on Sharon’s trumpet. But remember that the Arab masses, especially in great Iraq, may have their back to the wall but they know that you are the enemy. The dustbin of history will be the eternal fate of the enemies of Iraq Iraq the glorious martyr that will be resurrected by the resistance.”
The new Iraqi press, in contrast, expressed relief: “Saddam and his regime have gone without regret and God’s will has been fulfilled,” according to the Baghdad daily Al-Furat’s December 18 edition. Likewise, Azaman, another Iraqi daily commented, “Saddam’s capture opens a window of hope in a new Iraq that is marked by growing transparency a far cry from our past tainted by secret police cells into which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis disappeared.... Saddam... has provided ample evidence that he was a sham.... a coward who does not even dare to defend himself like any man would have done in a similar situation.... [He] was a man who was defeated several times, but maintained his power through operations of collective assassination of his own citizens, who for years were forced to endure persecution, torture and a total lack of freedom, up until April 9.”
Khabat, the news and views bulletin of the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), out of Irbil, Iraq, carried a column that noted that Saddam, “who for decades killed millions of people in the name of Arab nationalism and who urged Arabs to be forever ready to sacrifice themselves for national pride, hid himself in a pit just for the sake of an hour more of life. In the end he sacrificed a heroic death in favor of the life of prisoner.” Examining this phenomenon psychologically, the Azaman December 16 editorial continued, “This revelation about his true nature explains his aggressive behavior toward the Iraqi people, as well as the Arabs and the Muslims.” Khabat concluded, “Let us hope that Saddam was the last deceiver of Arabs.”
The press of Kuwait was, as might be expected, equally jubilant. On December 18, Kuwait’s former Oil Minister Ali al-Baghli summed up his feelings, in an article for the English-language Kuwaiti Arab Times, thus: “[D]espite the noise around us [condemning the capture]... from the bottom of our hearts we say God bless America.” Al-Baghli wrote that the capture “was possible due to the determination, effort and sacrifices” made by the United States. The former Kuwaiti official went on to note that, following Saddam’s 1991 invasion, his own country “was rebuilt without the help of Arabs, most of whom, in any case, were supporting Saddam.”
In a December 15 editorial, Kuwait’s A-Siyassa called Saddam Hussein a “devil” and “one of the worst criminals mankind has ever seen.... a coward who continues to cling to life even in the most humiliating circumstances. ...If he had an ounce of pride and self-respect, he would have shot himself in the head and avoided humiliation and shame for himself and for the Arabs.”
Also commenting the week of Saddam’s capture, the Syrian A-Thawra wrote,“One of the most difficult periods for the Iraqi people and the Arab nation came to an end yesterday.” At the same time, the newspaper commented, “It is a painful time as we witness a foreign occupation force solving an Iraqi problem for its own benefits and interests.” Expressing similar sentiments, but oblivious to Iraqis’ public reactions, the Algerian Liberte newspaper printed an opinion piece that Saddam’s capture “is completely insignificant for a people who have undergone a transition from dictatorship to colonization.”
In Lebanon, a columnist for the A-Nahar newspaper wrote December 16 that Saddam Hussein “especially deserves to remain alive instead of being shot dead and going down in history as a hero after all the blood he spilled.” One day earlier, the Lebanese A-Safir newspaper carried an opinion piece that expressed the hope that “the Iraqi leader’s final demise would prevent the birth of another Saddam in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world.” Similarly, another Lebanese commentator, writing in Al-Anwar, commented, “[W]hen Saddam Hussein was caught, this marked the end of the legend.”
The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi summed up the general reaction in the Arab world in a December 15 editorial: “It was a shock to us and a disgrace to millions of other Arabs as they followed the television shots of the Iraqi president submitting to the disgraceful American medical check up. We had hoped that he would resist to the last and in the process fall as a martyr, as his two sons and his grandson did, or take Hitler’s way out by shooting himself in the head or swallowing poison.”