29 April

By Daniel Kimmage

Bahrain's "Al-Wasat": Salah al-Din Hafiz, editor-in-chief of Egypt's "Al-Ahram," ridicules the argument that occupation can lead to freedom.

     "We know that colonialism, in both its old and new varieties, undertakes the occupation of a country and the subjugation of its people only to exploit its wealth and material and human potential. We know of no foreign colonizer who brought freedom or established a successful and stable democratic government in any occupied colony. How could this be the case in Iraq today? Even if [U.S. President George W] Bush were to send down an unblemished prophet from the heavens without our knowledge.... But the age of the prophets is over, and the divine messages have already been received. It would be naive to believe the crude propaganda that tells us morning and night that the American colonizers and their British lackeys don't want to occupy Iraq, remain there, exploit its oil, subdue its people, denigrate its history, plunder its wealth, and destroy its deep-rooted cultural heritage. They have arrived divinely inspired, following a higher calling that asks them to save a poor people from its satanic oppressors. As soon as they find the worst of these and kill them, they'll go back to their far-away country, leaving behind complete freedom and exemplary democracy for the joyous folk of a happy land."

Jordan's "Al-Dustour": Khayri Mansur reflects on Stalin and the legacy of dictatorship.

     "...Russia has shrunk, sold off the medals of its heroes to tourists, seen pickaxes bite into the granite and brass that made the statues of Lenin and Stalin. The republics have returned to their roots, exchanging Marxist murals and monuments for symbols from their own heritage. If Stalin were to return today 50 years later to examine his achievements, he would find instead the effects of perestroika, and only the language of comedy could summon up the necessary irony....

     "...Every dictator is seduced by the idea of eternity. He imagines that he will last as long as his statues stand in the squares. History has its own means of laying bare the truth. If Stalin were to return from the grave, he would realize that ovations are no guarantee against the passage of time. The guards of the Kremlin, and all other palaces, cannot stave off the collapse."

Britain's "Al-Zaman" (Iraqi expatriate): Abd al-Man'am al-A'sam wonders whether Saddam Hussein, if he is still alive, experienced any pangs of remorse on his birthday on 28 April.

     "Sixty-six years are not a long time for a man to live. But millions of collective years in the lives of Iraqis were crowded into that hellish time and lost. No one knows whether the blood-soaked birthday boy used the occasion yesterday to reflect on the atrocities he inflicted on Iraqis. The 28th of April commemorated disaster and nightmare for millions. Did he make an honorable assessment and repeat in regret what one blood-stained caliph is reported by the historian Ibn Al-Athir to have said: 'If I had know that my life would be so short, I would not have done what I did.'"