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TV Images Stir Anger, Shock and Warnings of Backlash by Emily Wax and Alia Ibrahim 
washingtonpost.com TV Images Stir Anger, Shock and Warnings of Backlash By Emily Wax and Alia Ibrahim Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, April 10, 2003; Page A41 CAIRO, April 9 -- As the cold reality of Baghdad's occupation by U.S. forces descended on the Arab world today, there was anger, shock and frustration, along with warnings of new battles ahead. "Please, America must hear our voices. The American media and people are in a state of euphoria right now, but they are not seeing it the way we are seeing it at all," said Diaa Rashwan, a political scientist at Cairo's Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "The Arab street is very frustrated, and to America, I repeat, I repeat, I repeat, the real war hasn't started yet. We have to be careful with such euphoria. It will only increase the feelings of anger in the Arab world. No Arabs want to welcome an occupying power." Reaction among those interviewed in Cairo reflected mistrust of the United States, along with disappointment in the failure of Iraq's military to respond to the U.S.-led invasion. "We thought we were doing so well. Arabs were fighting back, it wasn't going to be cake walk like everyone thought," lamented Emad Mohammed, 28, a building attendant in Cairo. "Where is Saddam now?" "I can't believe what I am seeing. I am so depressed," said Bassem Zein, 36, owner of a cell phone shop in Beirut who was watching television at work. "It just frustrates me that they enter Baghdad without a fight. This is too much." "I hate it," said Ahmed Samir, the manager of a trading company in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as he watched scenes of Iraqis shaking the hands of American soldiers in Baghdad. "It can only mean they hate Saddam more than they hate the Americans." Many of those interviewed said they thought the United States was protecting Israel, and some equated the televised images of the fall of Baghdad with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "No, no, no," yelled Shaaban Mohamad, watching television at a Cairo bookstore. "If the U.S. really wanted democracy, they would have taken out just about every Arab leader we have. This is very suspect. The U.S. just wants to protect Israel and wants the riches in the region." Those interviewed said they saw a different war as they watched images of the U.S. occupation of Baghdad. What some in the United States considered Iraqi liberation was viewed in the Arab world as the culmination of U.S. aggression and hypocrisy. In coffeehouses in Cairo and college campuses in Beirut, some said the United States manipulated the images they were seeing -- Iraqis cheering the arrival of U.S. forces, looting government buildings and destroying paintings and wall art of President Saddam Hussein. "These people dancing in the streets like fools are American spies," said Osama Awad, 26, who squeezed into a packed barbershop in Cairo, groaning as he watched televised images of Iraqis in downtown Baghdad attacking a giant statue of Hussein with sledgehammers. "The Americans are telling people to be happy and manipulating them. Meanwhile, they will steal their oil." Some Arab broadcasters compared the scene to the fall of the Berlin Wall. But many focused on a U.S. Marine draping an American flag over Saddam's fallen head, before quickly replacing it with an Iraqi flag. "The new Iraq will have the flavor and smell of the U.S.," said an anchor on al-Jazeera, the popular Arab satellite television network. "What Americans see as a man beating Saddam's picture with his shoe is an image that means something very different to us," said Hani Shukrallah, managing editor of Al-Ahram Weekly in Cairo. "We see people who are mad at their own leaders who have brought us to this. They may want Saddam out. But in a few weeks they will being doing the same thing to a picture of George Bush." Last night, analysis on television was already focusing on the future of Iraq. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Faisal called on the U.S. troops to leave Iraq. "Iraqis must take control over their country as fast as possible," Mubarak told Egypt's official news agency, MENA. Repeatedly, analysts said U.S. trust could be rebuilt only when the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was resolved. "For all people in the Arab world, the Palestinian problem is the only problem they have with the United States," said Turki Hamad, a Saudi political scientist. "If the U.S. succeeds in solving it, then people will change their minds about America." There were also calls for the United Nations to take a lead role in post-war Iraq. "If the U.S. wants to prove that we Arabs are wrong about this being an occupation for oil and the protection of Israel, it should transfer the whole file to the U.N.," said Hassan Nasaa, chairman of the political science department at Cairo University. There were few kind words for Saddam Hussein. But in a poor neighborhood in Old Cairo, residents said they hoped he would reappear and come out fighting again to restore Arab pride. Special correspondent Ibrahim reported from Beirut, and staff writer Carol Morello in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, contributed to this report. © 2003 The Washington Post Company |