26 April

By Daniel Kimmage

Egypt's "Algomhuria": Lutfi Nasif writes that American policies remind people of repressive practices under Saddam Hussein.

     "American repressive measures against the Iraqi people have already begun. They take the form of unprecedented acts of revenge. As a result, Iraqis feel that the era of Saddam Hussein was no worse than what they are experiencing now, with its searches and random killings. Shaykh Muhammad al-Fartus is a representative of the office of Imam al-Sadr, one of the Shi'a leaders who has become prominent after the occupation. He recounted the story of his detention by American forces after he led a demonstration condemning the occupation. He said he was tortured severely by American forces during the entire time of his detention. He announced that the treatment he received from American forces was worse than what people experienced under the regime of Saddam Hussein. This evidence comes from a Shi'a figure who always stood in opposition to the regime of Saddam Hussein."

United Arab Emirates' "Al-Ittihad": Dr. Hasan Hanafi, professor of philosophy at the University of Cairo, writes that Arab governments must give up their "dual discourse" and concentrate on their common interests.

     "All of the Arab regimes make use of a dual discourse. They speak out against American-British aggression against Iraq for local consumption, for Iraq is a member of the Arab League. Meanwhile, they are partners in the war, even if they have not yet become partners in the peace. The aim is to maintain the deception and preserve the vestige of a fig leaf before it falls away by dint of time, movement, reality, and history. This is merely talk that produces no action. The word itself becomes the deed, never covering the distance from tongue to hand.

     "The Arab regimes individually, and the Arab system collectively, have been overtaken by history just as history overtook the Iraqi regime. If the American-British aggression is an evil omen for Iraq, it could portend a better beginning for the rest of the Arab regimes. They must become conscious of the unity that binds them together, or they will find themselves trapped between hammer and anvil -- the hammer of the foreign enemy and the anvil of an angry people."

Syria's "Tishreen": Hanan Hamad predicts that the United States will try to exclude France from any role in determining the future of Iraq.

     "One of the question that arises in the wake of the war is the nature of the international system that should now be formed and the relations that will predominate within this system. It seems natural in this context that some countries will pay the price for their opposition to the war now that its perpetrators have achieved a military victory. France tops the list of countries whose relations with the United States are now under review. Official American sources claim that Paris must understand the consequences of its actions in the United Nations before the United States and Britain began their military operation against Iraq. The American administration is rebuffing French attempts at reconciliation to the extent that some wonder whether France will be pushed out of any decision-making role vis-a-vis Iraq not only in NATO, but in other organizations that include America and its allies."