| Be Great Again |
22 December 2003
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Arab Humliation is a Self-Inflicted Wound
One of the words that keeps cropping up in the Arab assessment of Saddam Hussein's capture is "humiliation." The word has been used over and over, from the shaving of his beard to get rid of whatever was in it (weapons of mass destruction?) to the way he surrendered without a shot. Many feel shame that the great defier of evil America and its British lackeys did not die in a blaze of glory. One rather feels shame that the Arab people, not just Iraqis, have had to put up with this kind of jackass as the best hero their culture could produce.
Usama bin Laden is of the same ilk -- a rich brat who searches for a meaningful life by deceiving the poor, murdering as the whim strikes and bringing Islam into disrepute. The late Hafez al Assad of Syria was another. Libya's Muamar Khaddafy (regardless of which spelling one uses) also counts but may have grown up lately. And the great pan-Arab Nasser was the biggest blowhard and buffoon of them all.
If the Arab leaders of the last century have proved wanting, there is a corner of Arab opinion, which was fully on display last week, that says outsiders are responsible. It is "arrogant" America that has brought all this suffering on Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, etc. Before that, it was the evil British. And the Zionists. These are the sources of shame and humiliation. How wonderful, not a jot of this the fault of the Arab universities, media, military, or broader culture.
In reality, people tend to get the kind of government they deserve. Cultures that embrace the strong-man theory get Saddam Husseins, Joe Stalins and Benito Mussolinis. Part of the problem may even be religious -- the system founded by Mohammed, Peace Be Unto Him, may have been quite suitable to a man of his exceptional abilities, but lesser men (and most are lesser) may be unable to make it work.
The truth is that the infidel Americans marched into Baghdad against ineffective resistance, hunted down the great fool, and showed him on TV getting checked for lice. It was rather humiliating, but pride has a more noble source than Ba'athism, a cult of personality that delivered nothing to the people and still claimed to be for them. And with the possible exception of Egypt, Iraq was the mightiest nation in the Arab world. Hence, the concern among Arabs over who is next because none can stand against the infidel Yankees.
There are a great many more humiliations to be played out in Iraq as the Saddam Hussein show trial begins and as the occupation continues for the next few years (or decades). If a new generation of Arab patriot can accept the ideas that not all the world is an enemy, that opposition does not mean treason, and that outsiders are not a problem for a people that has its house in order, greatness beckons, again.
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