When the Enemy Is a Liberator
By JOHN F. BURNS

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/16/weekinreview/16BURN.html

AMMAN, Jordan — Every day now, a flood of battered cars and buses arrives in
this city, bearing migrants from Iraq. Many are men of military age who have
driven across the open desert, or paid bribes to Iraqi guards at the border
crossing 250 miles east of Amman, to escape being drafted into Saddam
Hussein's battalions. Crowding into lodgings on the hillsides of Amman's old
city, the Iraqis become wanderers in a no-man's land, emerging by day to
look for casual work, staying indoors after dark, all the time fearing
Jordanian police patrols that hunt illegal immigrants and return them to the
border.

Gathered around kerosene heaters in their tenements, the Iraqi men talk of a
coming conflict, and what it will mean for them and their families. Since
all gatherings inside Iraq take place in the shadow of Mr. Hussein's terror,
with police spies lurking in every neighborhood, the talk in Amman offers a
chance to discover what at least some Iraqis really think, and what they
hope for now.

Almost to a man, these Iraqis said they wanted the Iraqi dictator removed.
Better still, they said — and it was a point made again and again — they
wanted him dead. The men, some in their teens, some in their 50's, told of
grotesque repression, of relatives and friends tortured, raped and murdered
or, as often, arrested and "disappeared."

But their hatred of Mr. Hussein had an equally potent counterpoint: for
them, the country that would rid them of their leader was not at all a
bastion of freedom, dispatching its legions across the seas to defend
liberty, but a greedy, menacing imperial power.

This America, in the migrants' telling, has enabled the humiliation of
Palestinians by arming Israel; craves control of Iraq's oil fields;
supported Mr. Hussein in the 1980's and cared not a fig for his brutality
then, and grieved for seven lost astronauts even as its forces prepared to
use "smart" weapons that, the migrants said, threatened to kill thousands of
innocent Iraqis.

The men refused to accept that their image of the United States might be
distorted by the rigidly controlled Iraqi news media, which offer as unreal
a picture of America as they do of Iraq. But when it was suggested that they
could hardly wish to be liberated by a country they distrusted so much —
that they might prefer President Bush to extend the United Nations weapons
inspections and stand down the armada he has massed on Iraq's frontiers —
they erupted in dismay.

"No, no, no!" one man said excitedly, and he seemed to speak for all.
Iraqis, they said, wanted their freedom, and wanted it now. The message for
Mr. Bush, they said, was that he should press ahead with war, but on
conditions that spared ordinary Iraqis.

The conflict should be short. American bombs and missiles should fall on Mr.
Hussein's palaces and Republican Guards and secret police headquarters, not
on civilians. Care should be taken not to obliterate the bridges and power
stations and water-pumping plants that were bombed in 1991. And America
should know that it would become the enemy of all Iraqis — and Muslims — if
it prolonged its military dominion in Iraq beyond the time necessary to
dismantle the old regime.

Although these Iraqis may represent a small sector of opinion — they fled
their country in terror, after all — the conversations offered powerful
clues as to how a war might play out across the wider Arab world. While
polls in Europe and Asia show deep opposition to a war against Mr. Hussein,
the mood among the 350 million people of the Arab states has been even more
critical. Polls alone don't capture how visceral anti-American feelings have
become, spreading beyond traditional centers of hostility — mosques and
other strongholds of conservative Islamists, Arab nationalists and others —
across the spectrum of Arab society.

For years, mainstream politicians and other Arab leaders have conceded, at
least privately, that Mr. Hussein is a monstrous tyrant whose ambition to
acquire the most powerful weapons has made him, potentially at least, more
of a threat to his neighbors than to Europe and the United States.

Two years ago, an Egyptian editor told a traveler back from Iraq that Mr.
Hussein was "Israel's best friend" in the Arab world, because the Arab
failure to isolate and condemn him had the effect of blackening all Arab
states in the eyes of the West.

But as the United States has ratcheted up pressure on Baghdad, Arab voices —
politicians, intellectuals, businessmen and students — have remained largely
silent about the miseries Mr. Hussein has inflicted on his people and the
threat his weapons might pose. Instead, condemnation has been mostly
reserved for the United States. How vitriolic it has become was clear in the
way many newspapers treated the shuttle loss.

Along with militant imams who proclaimed the Columbia disaster to be God's
punishment for America's "curses" on Muslims, there was this, typically,
from a columnist in the Saudi newspaper Al Yaum: "The American view of the
world crashed even before the Columbia. America, which sees itself as the
symbol of freedom and justice, has become an arsenal of weapons in advance
of a military campaign across the entire world. The world has become a map
of targets for the American arrows represented by the trinity of war — Bush,
Rumsfeld and Condoleezza, and behind them the famous 'quiet' man, Dick
Cheney."

On its face, the hostility promises only deeper trouble ahead for the United
States. But there is another possibility, one that Arab leaders who are
cooperating with the Americans are relying on as Mr. Bush's moment of
decision draws closer. These nations include Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and
Saudi Arabia, which allow American military bases, as well as Jordan, where
American troops would man Patriot missiles against missiles Iraq might fire
at Israel and mount pilot rescue missions into Iraq.

The leaders of these nations, all monarchies, know that if an American war
bogged down, with heavy casualties on both sides, their own legitimacy,
never strong, would be challenged by their own people in ways they might not
survive. For these rulers, it is crucial that any conflict be short and
inflict minimal casualties on Iraq's civilians.

At least one of the rulers, discussing American war plans with his advisers,
has concluded that Mr. Hussein's regime is apt to collapse quickly as
non-elite army units surrender or change sides.

But it is not the rapidity of an American victory alone that sustains the
hopes of these Arab rulers. The pro-American Arab leaders are confident of
something that invites mockery among the Europeans and Americans who oppose
any war: that American troops would arrive in Iraq's major cities as
liberators.

When Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the American commander in the Middle East,
visited one Arab palace in recent weeks, Western diplomats reported, the
Arab ruler quieted his restive courtiers by predicting that American forces
would be met in Baghdad by Iraqis lining the street in celebration.

If that happens, anti-American opinions in the Arab world might swing, these
rulers hope. There would then be revelations about the extent of what Mr.
Hussein has inflicted on his people in 23 years. Just as the worst abuses of
the Taliban and Al Qaeda were revealed after they were chased from Kabul and
Kandahar, the full horrors of Mr. Hussein may be known only after his
downfall.

That, America's friends in the Arab world believe, might yet be enough to
remake Mr. Bush's image in places where he is now vilified, as if Iraq's
miseries were his fault more than they have been Mr. Hussein's.






_________________________________________________________________
STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~