7 April

By Daniel Kimmage

Britain's "Al-Hayat" (pan-Arab, Saudi-owned): Fawziyyah al-Khalid, a Saudi writer and academic, sees broader political significance in global opposition to the war in Iraq.

     "Is American aggression against Iraq really the war against Iraq that the American administration says it is? Or will this aggression ignite a world war between those who want 'unilateral hegemony' over the political, economic, military, and intellectual destiny of the international community -- by hook, by crook, or force of arms -- and those who dream of love, bread, and a just pluralism among the peoples and cultures of the earth. The war against Iraq sparked demonstrations and sit-ins in the world's capitals. Protests featured an unprecedented level of popular participation in political decision making, indicating that the world's peoples are ready to pay the price for the crucial choice they still have."

Lebanon's "Al-Safir": Muhammad Al-Hajiri draws a parallel between American religiosity as depicted in the film "Gangs of New York" and a recent Congressional resolution on the war in Iraq.

     "Perhaps director Martin Scorcese's film 'Gangs of New York' has shown us the true nature of the religious fervor that accompanied the foundation of New York, the city of glass. We see this in the struggle between the Catholic hero, played by Leonardo di Caprio, and the Protestant hero, the 'Butcher,' played by Daniel Day Lewis. The former asks for forgiveness and tolerance, while the latter poses in front of the American flag, saying, 'O Lord, You are the knife in my hand.' It seems that this frightening expression best fits Bush Jr. and his gang of neoconservatives in their war against Iraq. Both houses of Congress have a Republican majority, most of them conservative southern Christians. They passed a resolution calling on the man in the White House to announce a day of 'prayer and fasting to secure the protection of providence for America and its forces in Iraq.'"

Britain's "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" (pan-Arab, Saudi-owned): Ahmad al-Rab'i hopes that the current crisis will spark intellectual ferment in the Arab world.

     "We would like one of the results of the current war to be the beginning of a period of intellectual ferment for the elites and intellectuals across our Arab homeland. This is what we wanted after the disaster of 1967, when conferences tried to answer the questions that emerged from the crushing defeat that Israel dealt the Arab countries in only a few days: Was the defeat military or intellectual? Was it because of education? Can we construct on the ruins of this defeat new, realistic thinking that will remake people and institutions, putting in place a future project to counteract the Zionist project?

     "Amid all the great events, challenges, and discussions that have taken place among the political and intellectual elite throughout the Arab world -- from the foundation of the state of Israel to this current Iraqi war, through the June defeat and Iraqi occupation of Kuwait -- the Arab mind appears to have put up ferocious resistance. It has resisted any reconsideration of its foundations and fundamentals. Axioms believed to be self-evident predominate, yet no attempt is made to test them through experience. There is a nihilistic attitude toward the 'other.' Every 'other' is either an enemy or a part of a conspiracy. And in the unconscious there is a passionate love affair with the dictator and hero. No matter what misfortune he brings, it is enough that he is against imperialism and against the scheming other."