The “Ugly American” and the Arab Without a Nose

Asharq Al-Awsat ^ | 10/4/05 | Mona Eltahawy

[Valin]

CAIRO – As Karen Hughes, the newly appointed head of U.S. public diplomacy, began her first visit to the Middle East last week, an Arab newspaper published a cartoon of the “Ugly American”. It showed President George Bush sitting in front of a mirror, with a thick layer of make up on his face. He turns to Hughes and asks her for more make up and a strong perfume.

The message was: America cannot hide its ugliness. Its arrogance and actions carried out without thought to consequence have made it so unattractive that nothing will turn an ugly face pretty.

If I was a political cartoonist I would have drawn a cartoon showing an Arab standing in front of a mirror cutting off his nose. I would label the mirror “America”. The Arab is oblivious to the blood that flows from his nose and the disfigurement he is inflicting on himself. All he cares about is that he does not look like the image that the mirror “America” has reflected to him.

My message embodies the English saying “to cut off your nose to spite your face”, which means to perform an action – usually to prove a point - that makes you suffer the most. In the case of my cartoon, it means we will do anything to stand up to America and prove a point to America, forgetting in the meantime that ultimately we’re hurting ourselves the most.

And nowhere is this more obvious than in the Arab world’s reaction to the bloodbath that is washing over Iraq.

More than two years have passed now since that invasion of Iraq but too many people –in the Arab world and in the United States – are still stuck arguing over whether the Bush administration was right or wrong to invade Iraq.

In the United States, the arguments often have little do with Iraqis themselves. I rarely see Iraqis on American television speaking for themselves and I rarely read their opinions in U.S. papers. Instead, it is the supporters and opponents of Bush who argue.

The Americans have not even bothered to count how many Iraqis have died since the invasion.

But one thing is obvious: the United States needs help in Iraq.

Here in the Arab world, we don’t have the luxury to argue endlessly over whether Bush was right or wrong. Firstly, it is up to the Iraqi people themselves to decide if the invasion was good for them or not.

In America, there is a blind spot towards Iraqis. Here in the Arab world we have a blind spot of our own towards the Shia of Iraq. Muslim terrorists slaughter fellow Muslims in Iraq but the Arab world – from where many of these terrorists come from - issues weak and meaningless condemnations because it is mostly Shia who are dying.

Terrorists drag Shiite teachers from their classrooms and shoot them dead. Terrorists sadistically lure poor Shia labourers looking for work and blow up 200 of them. Where is the outrage?

But this is what the Arab world forgets: while it stands by wanting the Americans to suffer defeat in Iraq, it is the Arab world that is being defeated by the terrorists who have turned their guns on the Shia of Iraq.

What the Arab world forgets is that those guns can just as easily be turned against the rest of us, just as the suicide bombings that were once used against Israel only are now being used against everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim.

Karen Hughes described her visit to the Middle East as “listening tour”. It quickly turned into a “dialogue of the deaf” with neither side properly listening or talking to the other.

An Egyptian journalist told me an incident that gives me some hope. Of all the people that Hughes met in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the least “intellectual” or elite of them were a group of Egyptian students attending the American University in Cairo on American scholarships. These students are not the stereotypical AUC students who are usually from wealthy or upper class families. Many of the students who met Hughes came from outside of Cairo.

They asked her why America, the world’s only superpower, stumbled so badly after Hurricane Katrina. Hughes – ever the loyal Bush aide – defended her boss but ended up losing the students by getting into the details of domestic American politics that didn’t interest them.

Hughes’ deputy Dina Habib Powell came to the rescue. Dina is an Egyptian American and she understood what the students. She told them that even the world’s only superpower needs help, that we must all help each other during disasters and that the United States appreciated very much the help that Arab countries sent. The Egyptian students loved hearing this and applauded heartily.

I didn’t read about this incident in any of the U.S. press coverage of the meeting.

Iraq is a bloodbath. America needs the help of the Arab world. The Arab world needs America too – how many people insist that America pressure their governments to reform? And ultimately, it is in no one’s interest to see Iraq fail.

So maybe the American isn’t so “ugly” when he asks for help. It is also useful when he or she looks a bit more like us and can make that cultural connection in the way Dina Habib Powell did.

And maybe the Arab will stop cutting off his nose when he realizes that his interests and those of America can actually intersect and that being anti-American for the sake of it is ridiculous and ultimately hurts him more than anyone else.

America and the Arab world need each other.

-----------------------------------------------------

Mona Eltahawy

Born in Egypt in 1967, Mona She was a correspondent for the Reuters News Agency in Cairo and Jerusalem and also wrote for the Guardian newspaper from the Middle East. Mona is also a frequent contributor to opinion pages in the US and abroad. Her Op-Eds have appeared in The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. She has also been a guest analyst on ABC Nightline, BBC Newsnight, MSNBC,Fox News'' The O''Reilly Factor and various NPR shows. She is based in New York.

monaeltahawy@yahoo.com

[IronJack]

America cannot hide its ugliness.

Islam, on the other hand, is known for its beauty.

Its arrogance and actions carried out without thought to consequence have made it ... unattractive

While Arabs the world over are held in highest esteem, and are on everybody's "A" list. The Taliban, for example, are the life of the party. And those wacky, lovable Shiites? What celebration would be complete without a few beheadings or a traumatic amputation or two?

Yep, America is the ugly one.

[One Proud Dad]

Arabs = camel dung

[bboop]

Always a high honor to be hated by your enemies, imho.

[yoe]

And those wacky, lovable Shiites? What celebration would be complete without a few beheadings or a traumatic amputation or two?

Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant."--------- --Omas Ahmad, Cofounder of

[Pan_Yans Wife]

The Americans have not even bothered to count how many Iraqis have died since the invasion.

Counting and publishing the numbers are two different things.

[Jeff Chandler]

What the Arab world forgets is that those guns can just as easily be turned against the rest of us, just as the suicide bombings that were once used against Israel only are now being used against everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim.

"Murdering others is hunky dory, but the problem is they might kill us, too."

Am I understanding theis correctly?

[azhenfud]

"And maybe the Arab will stop cutting off his nose when he realizes that his interests and those of America can actually intersect and that being anti-American for the sake of it is ridiculous and ultimately hurts him more than anyone else."

I'd often wondered why this hasn't worked before but hadn't the verbal articulation to express it.

The culprit? It's the givers of hate messages being "preached" in islamite masques.

[Jeff Chandler]

It is also useful when he or she looks a bit more like us and can make that cultural connection in the way Dina Habib Powell did.

No universality in the Arab mindset, only tribalism.

[Valin]

Iraqi police Casualties
http://icasualties.org/oif/IraqiDeaths.aspx

[Valin]

Murdering others is hunky dory, but the problem is they might kill us, too."

Am I understanding theis correctly?



No. What she's saying (IMO) is the same people(?) who are killing Americans are killing Arabs. And she's right.

[wizardoz]

We need to take out Syria. The problem is not American aggression, it's American restraint.

[Lorianne]

Muslim terrorists slaughter fellow Muslims in Iraq but the Arab world – from where many of these terrorists come from -issues weak and meaningless condemnations because it is mostly Shia who are dying.

Many of the terrorists in Iraq come from the Arab world? Many? How many?

[manic4organic]

Don't forget to count the Egyptian terrorists in Iraq. Think they left that part out of the article.

[Valin]

Straight Vermonter, do you have anything on this question?


Lorianne, The terrorist in Iraq can be broken down into a number of groups (in no particular order)
1 Foreigners
2 Former Baathists
3 Some Sunnis allied with the Baathists
4 Some Shia allied with Iran
5 Criminals, remember Saddam released 1,00s from prisons right befor the invations.

[Lorianne]

And how many of those were from the non-Muslim world?

My point is she seems to be implying that at least SOME of the terrorists are from non-Arab (actually the correct term would be non-Muslim) world?

[Valin]

Muslim terrorists slaughter fellow Muslims in Iraq but the Arab world – from where many of these terrorists come from -issues weak and meaningless condemnations because it is mostly Shia who are dying.

That's not what I get from this. What I get is Muslims are killing Muslims.

[yooling]

One could easily sub "liberal democrat" for Arab throughout the piece. Good post.

[MNJohnnie]

Whaaa, the Americans are killing off our Jihadist faster then we can breed them. Whaaa. Evolve or Die Muslims. Time to give up your self-important delusions of grander and join at least the 18th Century since the 21st seems so far beyond your limited mental abilities. That fact that we are in Iraq is caused by YOUR failure to govern yourselves. We would be more then happy to leave you alone in your little sandboxes if you would of had the decency to do the same. On 9-11 you decided on Jihad. So be it. Problem for you Muslims is Americans do "Jihad" better then anyone. Just ask people of a certain generation about
Berlin, Desden, Tokyo, or Hiroshimia. Be careful we do not hate you back Muslims. You would not survive the experience.

[An Old Marine]

America and the Arab world need each other.

Therein lies the mistake. This war will only end when the Arabs are interested in ending the war on the terms that we offer them. This has been true for the entire history of man.