Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Arab World Is of Two Minds About U.S. Involvement in Iraq
The bright red headline across four columns in an Egyptian government-owned newspaper, Al Gumhuria, on Tuesday trumpeted the latest bombings in Iraq as somehow religiously sanctioned: "Five Consecutive Martyrdom Operations Rock Baghdad."

Yet both Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and the Arab League condemned the bombings, singling out the attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross as particularly appalling. In Beirut, the respected daily Safir labeled the bombings a "crime," not least because in the paper's view they will serve to prolong the American presence.

Across the Arab world, opinion toward events in Iraq has taken on a kind of split personality that deepens with each new attack, particularly after gory explosions like those on Monday, which killed dozens of Iraqis and wounded hundreds more.

On one hand, it is rare to find outright support in the Arab world for the United States to succeed. People in and out of government say they hope Washington will suffer for its perceived arrogance in taking on Iraq without international approval and for its unequivocal support for Israel. There is also fear that an easy victory might translate into dispatching the American military elsewhere to replace leaders.

On the other hand, many Arabs say they do not want the United States to fail either, fearing that the inevitable chaos would slosh across the entire region. Failure would open the door in Iraq for the kind of war among the sects that plagued Lebanon for 15 years. More important, if Islamic militants carry out attacks and triumph, Islamic extremism could well reignite.

"The general feeling is that the U.S. put itself in a position that it deserves, it serves them right," said Khaled M. Batarfi, the managing editor of Al Madina, a newspaper published in Jidda, Saudi Arabia. "The U.S. was always saying, we know better, we understand the stakes and everything will be fine.

"But the other feeling is worry that the U.S. might leave without finishing the job first," he went on. "It will be like a jungle."

This quandary has resulted in more paralysis than usual. The latest bombings elicited few public statements from senior officials — although this is also partly because attacks have become so frequent.

Muhammad Kamal, a political science professor at Cairo University, said Arab countries faced a dilemma. "They don't want to leave Iraq, this big Arab country, to the U.S. to shape its future, they don't want the U.S. to do that exclusively," he said. "But they are also reluctant to do anything which might be interpreted as helping the U.S. as an occupier of Iraq."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/international/middleeast/29ARAB.html

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