April 10, 2003
WORD FROM THE ARAB STREET:
WORD FROM THE ARAB STREET:
Negative:
"Why did he fall that way? Why so fast? He's a coward. Now I feel sorry for his people."
"We discovered that all what the information minister was saying was all lies. Now no one believes al-Jazeera anymore."
"Those who applauded the collapse of Lenin's statue for some Pepsi and hamburgers felt the hunger later on and regretted what they did."
"We Arabs are clever only at talking. Where are the Iraqi weapons? Where are the Iraqi soldiers?"
"There must have been treason."
"It seems there was some deal. Saddam has put himself ahead of his people."
"I can't say that I'm happy about what's going on because these are non-Muslim forces that have gone in and I hope they will not stay."
"They (Iraqis) haven't yet buried their dead and they are honouring the American flag. They haven't seen yet what the Americans will do to them after this; the war has just began."
"I spit on them (Iraqis). I was so disappointed."
"Do those crowds who are saluting the Americans believe that the United States will let them live better? They (Americans) will loot their oil and control their resources, leaving them nothing."
"Whatever I'm seeing is very painful because although Saddam Hussein was a dictator, he represented some kind of Arab national resistance to the foreign invaders - the Americans and the British."
Ambivalent:
"I don't like the idea of having the Americans here but we asked for it. Why don't we see the Americans going to Finland, for example? They come here because our area is filled with dictatorships like Saddam's."
Positive:
Posted by Tim Blair at April 10, 2003 12:55 PM"This is a message for the Arab regimes, and could be the beginning of transformation in the Arab region. Without the honest help of the Western nations, the reforms will not take place in these countries."
"For a while, there will be a sense of resignation, letdown, that this is one more (Arab) defeat. But what was defeated primarily in Baghdad is Arab oppression, the one party system which was unable to defend its country for more than three weeks, and its capital for more than 48 hours. What was defeated in this battle was not the Arabs but the regime of oppression."