Among Arabs, satisfaction and alarm at Iraq Insurrection

Cairo Many Arabs watching the escalating violence in Iraq expressed fear Thursday that the United States, rather than helping to stamp out extremism, might have created a new, toxic incubator for it, while others expressed satisfaction that, as they see it, Americans are getting their nose bloodied.

There is an almost universal sense that Americans are paying the price for entering Iraq with no plan beyond toppling Saddam Hussein and that the anarchy they allowed to run unchecked in the first days of the occupation a year ago has never really been tamed.

��Iraq appears to be disintegrating and the Iraqis are not better off today than they were before the collapse of Saddam Hussein�s regime,�� said Mohammed Kamal, a professor of political science at Cairo University. ��The Americans don�t have a plan on how to get out of this mess that they put themselves in.��

Almost every Arab government on Thursday maintained a studied silence on Iraq, aside from a scattering of official statements, including one from the Arab League, calling for a greater UN role in restructuring Iraq and protecting its civilians.

��The developments in Iraq in the last few days are alarming and we fear that we are facing a civil war in Iraq, reminding me of what happened in Afghanistan and Lebanon,�� Qatar�s foreign minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, said on the sidelines of a conference about democracy in Doha.

��We are worried about the cluster of resistance and terrorist organizations in Iraq, which has become a fertile ground for these people to implement their extremist ideology,�� said the sheik, one of the few Arab officials to speak out on the topic.

Turkey expressed concern about the chances of sparking a regional escalation, while Iran criticized what it called the harsh American measures that are failing to solve Iraq�s problems. Most Arab governments, especially those with close ties with Washington, could neither risk alienating the Bush administration nor foment anger at home, so they kept silent.

Many Arab leaders already face the same dilemma with Israeli violence against the Palestinians. Indeed, commentators drew parallels between Israeli actions in the occupied territories and what the U.S. military is doing in Iraq.

��I don�t think the Americans can achieve what they want by force; it is the same phenomenon in Israel,�� said Abdulwahab Badrakhan, a columnist at Al-Hayat newspaper, which is published in London. ��The Americans made a mistake when they did not involve the Arabs in the situation.��

Among critics of the United States, and they are legion, there was satisfaction that chances are growing more remote by the day that Iraq will serve as a model that would eventually reshape the region. First of all, there is a sense that Syria and Iran will not be targeted by Washington for the time being. On a broader scale, the violence is further undermining U.S. credibility and making Americans ever more unpopular.

��Freedom, democracy, the rule of law and other such promises have been transformed in the occupation�s lexicon into violations, invasions, sieges, curfews, bombardments from Apache helicopters and the terrorization of a people,�� the daily newspaper Al-Khaleej in the United Arab Emirates wrote in a typical editorial.

There have been few demonstrations in the Arab world, which some analysts took as a sign of general satisfaction that the United States is in trouble and the resistance succeeding.

Arab press reports tended to concentrate more on the situation in Falluja than events in the Shiite community. ��Falluja is Burning�� said a headline in the Egyp tian newspaper Al-Ahrar, while several dailies chose the word ��massacre.��

In the majority Sunni Muslim population there is less of an emotional connection with the Iraqi Shiites, who are generally seen as an extension of Iran, analysts said. Also, Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who set off the most serious insurrection so far, is an unknown quantity.

The one place where he is widely known is in the Shiite communities of Lebanon and the Gulf, which evidently pay close attention to events in Iraq.

The leading Shiite cleric in Lebanon, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, once the Americans� nemisis there, condemned what he called ��horrible massacres�� by the United States in Iraq, saying they proved Washington was lying when it said its goal was to bring freedom. At the same time, he called for Iraqis to show restraint.

In Tehran, an editorial in the English-language Tehran Times, which is often used to send messages abroad, said the United States should be working more closely with moderate clerics to defuse the situation.

The wider Shiite community is worried that Sadr and his followers, with little support outside Iraq, will divide the community and wreck the Shiites� historic opportunity to gain a dominate role in running Iraq.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who enjoys wide respect outside Iraq, has been biding his time, figuring that when the Americans build a democratic system the Shiites will gain the upper hand, given their 65 percent majority status.

Shiites outside the country suggest that Washington has not done enough to bring economic development to poor slums like Sadr City, where young male residents have a sense they have nothing to lose. In addition, they say, the U.S. remains hampered by its poor relations with Tehran.

Washington could, for example, have tried to cultivate Ayatollah Kathim al-Husseini al-Haeri, based in the Iranian holy city of Qum. Ayatollah Haeri lends the young Sadr much needed religious legitimacy by issuing the fatwas he needs to support his positions.

On one level, the popular satisfaction with seeing Americans in trouble was reflected in jokes zapping around on the Internet, like the following: An American, a Briton and an Iraqi are all drinking together in a bar. The American and the Briton guzzle their beers, then throw their glasses and draw guns, shattering the glasses in midair.

��In the West, we are so rich we never drink from the same glasses twice,�� the American tells the Iraqi.

The Iraqi then downs his beer, pulls out his gun, and shoots the American and Briton dead.

��In Iraq, we have so many Americans and Britons that we never have to drink with the same ones twice,�� he tells the other bar patrons.

The New York Times

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