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Egyptian editor: Arabs should've ousted Saddam
Ought to 'feel humiliated' his fall came at hands of U.S., Britain

Posted: February 17, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

The editor of an Egyptian journal says Arabs should have been the ones to bring down the tyrannical regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"We should feel humiliated that Saddam's fall came at the hands of the U.S. and Britain," said Osama Al-Ghazali Harb, the editor-in-chief of the Egyptian quarterly Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya magazine and board member and adviser to the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

"The discovery of Saddam Hussein, the arrogant, cruel, and luxury-loving leader, hiding in an underground hole – bringing to mind the tale of the Thieves of Baghdad – and his surrender to his captors in a docile and cowardly fashion, was indeed something of a farce," the Egyptian editor wrote. "But, the 'Mother of all Farces,' to borrow Saddam's famous idiom, is that Arabs and Muslims fail to grasp the true implications of the rise, and fall, of Saddam Hussein."

Describing Saddam as "a true example of the despotic leader" defined by Arab intellectual Abdel-Rahman Al-Kawakbi, Harb said Saddam feared the repercussions of being captured by his own people.

"There is no doubt Saddam knew what his fate would be if captured by the Iraqis; he would have been killed and mutilated as other previous Iraqi leaders, less brutal than him, were," Harb wrote. "In this instance, Saddam might have preferred suicide – not out of honor, but in fear of torture and violent death. It is most likely that Saddam surrendered in this docile manner because he knew his captors were Americans … ."

Harb said Saddam disregarded the pleas of Arab leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The editor criticized the "ridiculous interpretations" of Saddam's capture circulating among Arabs and Muslims,

The first, he said, is the notion that the manner of the capture was a deliberate and unprecedented insult to all Arabs and Muslims.

"This point of view implies that Saddam is in some form a symbol of Arabs and Muslims, a 'legitimate' leader, whose actions were a true reflection of the aims and aspirations of Iraq and the Arab world," Harb wrote.

But Saddam never had any legitimacy, he said, arguing his decisions were "in flat contradiction to Iraqi, Arab and Islamic interests."

"What we, as Arabs, should truly feel humiliated about are the prevailing political and social conditions in the Arab world – especially in Iraq – which allowed someone such as Saddam Hussein to become vice president in 1968, and then, through an unparalleled bloody and conspiratorial path, to assume the presidency in 1979."

Arabs also should feel humiliated, Harb wrote, that Saddam was able to remain in power for so long after transforming a country relatively rich in natural, human and financial resources into the "poorest, most debt-ridden country in the Arab world, not to mention the hundreds of thousands killed and displaced."

Harb also lamented the humiliation of Arab intellectuals' support for Saddam

But most humiliating of all, he said, was that his fall came at the hands of the U.S. and Britain, which did so to protect their own interests.

"The Arabs should have been the ones to bring down Saddam, in defense of their own dignity and their own true interests," he said.

The Egyptian journalist also dismissed a "widespread" interpretation of Saddam's capture as a "grand conspiracy, skillfully executed not only against Saddam but against all Arabs and Muslims."

"Those who espouse this point of view put all the blame on evil, conspiring, external forces, who lure Arab and Islamic leaders and societies into making the wrong choices and steer them away from making the right ones," he said.

Harb said if Saddam's fall becomes a catalyst for speeding up democratic reform in the region, "it is not helpful to raise the specter of U.S. intervention."

"Reform is not a U.S. or British issue," he said. "It is first and foremost a domestic concern, espoused by the elite and society at large, not only at present, but also in the past."

He contended, however, that since "the operations of the U.S. in Iraq resulted in the destruction of the state and the political system, the U.S. is obliged to repair the damage it created before leaving – at least to some minimal level."

Harb concluded: "In sum, it would indeed be a great and unfortunate farce if Arabs and Muslims were to focus on lamentations and the search for conspiracies, and neglect to finally and conclusively acknowledge the consequences of dictatorship, despotism and the absence of liberties and democracy."