Al Jazeera: Saddam humiliation could fire up resistance

Al Jazeera ^ | Monday 15 December 2003

[presidio9]

The humiliating images of Saddam Hussein's capture by US forces risk increasing Arab support for the Iraqi resistance and sharpening their appetite for revenge, analysts said on Monday.

"I felt extremely humiliated," said Egyptian writer Sayyid Nassar, who interviewed Saddam three weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq on 20 March. "I felt it was not only a humiliation of Arabs but of all humanity.

"By shaving his beard, a symbol of virility in Iraq and in the Arab world, the Americans committed an act that symbolizes humiliation in our region, where getting shaved by one's enemy means robbing him of his will," he said.

"It's also a humiliation for all Arab leaders and a message telling them that he who does not enter the poultry yard of the Americans will experience the same fate," he said.

Saddam's arrest "will not destroy the Iraqi resistance against the US occupier," and will encourage "feelings of Arab solidarity with the Iraqi fighters," he predicted.

"On the contrary, the resistance will grow and change shape," he warned.

"There will be a kind of creativity in acts of resistance, which will diversify and intensify to wash away their shame," he said.

The Egyptian Islamist lawyer Muntasir al-Zayyat agreed that Saddam's capture would "open the door wide to the resistance."

"It is true that we all deplored the humiliating way Saddam was arrested and his capture added to the feelings of frustration. However, the positive side is that it will intensify the resistance," he said.

"All opponents of Saddam, who refused to fight the American occupier for fear of being counted among the former president's supporters, will no longer hesitate to join the resistance," Zayyat said.

"The image that former president Saddam Hussein gave during his arrest by American occupation forces is a painful and shocking image," said Ibrahim Nafie, the editor in chief of the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram. "It's an image that no Arab wished for the president of one of the most important Arab states," Nafie wrote.

The Iraqi political analyst Ali al-Dabbagh, who lives in the United Arab Emirates, said Arabs were shocked and humiliated because of the "collapse of a myth" which forced "Arabs to face their sad reality and impotence.

"Many were those who were shocked that this 'hero', whom the media covered with a halo and glorious titles like the 'valorous', did not resist" US forces coming to arrest him, Dabbagh said.

"Suddenly, Arabs saw the true face of Saddam: a dwarf who did not have the courage to resist or even commit suicide as he had for so long claimed he would do," Dabbagh said.

"Such a confrontation with reality and the humiliation felt by his arrest by foreigners invites us to self-criticism and review ideas which force the Arab people to follow the propaganda (of their regimes) without examining things," he said.

The dictator's capture will cut his ties with his supporters and end their operations, "but will not wipe out the extremist groups which are pursuing their attacks," Dabbagh said.

The editor in chief of the Iraqi newspaper Al-Nahda, Jalal Machta, shared his opinion. "Saddam Hussein was like these gods of the pre-Islamic era, when animists fashioned an idol with date paste, then ended up eating the statue they worshipped," he said.

[smith288]

*Yawn*.... this is the same "Arab street" that rose up when all arabs were humiliated at the weak defenses of Baghdad?

[ClearCase_guy]

John Kerry should hire these guys for his Campaign. "The Senator's single digit results in the NH and SC primaries are exactly the sort of primary returns we were looking for at this stage. We have not yet begun to fight. These events will energize our supporters who will now flock to the polls in record numbers. Our secret weapons will turn the tide! Gotterdammerung is approaching!!"

[HarryCaul]

You know...

I have great respect for the achievments and history of Arabic civilization.

But any culture that relies on someone like Saddam as a source of pride needs to do some serious self-examination. There's something deeply wrong with that. It's not a good thing for a culture.

[BrooklynGOP]

"By shaving his beard, a symbol of virility in Iraq and in the Arab world, the Americans committed an act that symbolizes humiliation in our region, where getting shaved by one's enemy means robbing him of his will," he said.

Uh. Saddam didn't have a beard prior to the war. These people are nuts.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

"It's also a humiliation for all Arab leaders and a message telling them that he who does not enter the poultry yard of the Americans will experience the same fate," he said.

Good. That should make things easier.

[billorites]

"So we are witnessing right now the war's critical turning point in these the most historic of times. What has been amazing about the war so far is not that we have been winning, but that we have been doing so — quite unlike our increasingly exhausted enemies — without the full mobilization of our vast economic, political, material, and human resources."

From Victor Davis Hanson's recent article Critical Mass.

[danneskjold]

"By shaving his beard, a symbol of virility in Iraq and in the Arab world, the Americans committed an act that symbolizes humiliation in our region, where getting shaved by one's enemy means robbing him of his will," he said.

I think it's safe to say that Saddam had been robbed of his will long before his beard was shaved...

[tessalu]

All Muslims were born mad and angry. It just does not matter what other people do or don't do. They are always foaming at the mouth.

[petercooper]

Hey AlDiareah:

F--- Off!

[Inyokern]

"By shaving his beard, a symbol of virility in Iraq and in the Arab world, the Americans committed an act that symbolizes humiliation in our region, where getting shaved by one's enemy means robbing him of his will," he said.

Do all arabs have the emotional maturity of a 5 year old? Or is it just this guy?

[Mr. Bird]

The humiliating images of Saddam Hussein's capture by US forces risk increasing Arab support for the Iraqi resistance and sharpening their appetite for revenge, analysts said on Monday.

While I'm sure images of Saddam gallantly shooting it out with the Great Satan would have caused mass surrendering? The simple fact of the matter is that there is a percentage of Islamic yahoos that wish to kill Americans regardless of the circumstances. That's not news, but sometimes the globe could use a reminder.

[freedumb2003]

Good. That should make things easier.

We should do like the English did -- schedule time on Al Jazerra, execute a Muslim and bury him with 2 pigs.

Then say that will be what happens to anyone who attacks or even looks sideways wrong at American and their support forces.

The same could be used for the broader WOT. Kill an American, get killed and buried with pork.

[gipper81]

Right! The arab street will really rise up this time!!!

[Billthedrill]

Well, the two Egyptian figures interviewed certainly seem a bit off their feed.

And they were dancing in the streets in Iraq. So tell me - why is it that they're "humiliated" in Cairo and jubilant in Baghdad? It's long past time we shifted focus a bit to the Egyptian roots of radical Islam.

[Naspino]

By shaving his bla bla bla bla Allah shall bla bla and unleash a holy bla bla bla that shall never end until bla bla and infidels are bla bla bla...

This paraphrases all arabic terrorist journalists and their rantings forever more.

[the Real fifi]

Sounds like Fisk or Hersh. Do you suppose they ghost write for Al-Jazeera?

[ASA Vet]

"It's also a humiliation for all Arab leaders and a message
telling them that he who does not enter the poultry yard of the Americans will
experience the same fate,"

I'd rather use a pig sty than a poultry yard, but as long as they get the message it'll have to do.

[Kenton]

"It's also a humiliation for all Arab leaders and a message telling them that he who does not enter the poultry yard of the Americans will experience the same fate," he said.

Sour grapes, dude. But yeah, that's the message all right. Better pay attention... his treatment by us wasn't nearly as humiliating as what the Iraquis may do to him.

[presidio9]

Be sure to click on the link and FReep the poll. Currently 41% of our camel-riding brethern say that Saddam's capture will not weaken resistance.