- "Turn on the TV" - my wife, alerted by a phone
call, yelled from the kitchen. On the screen was George W. Bush's mug photo
with a caption reading 'Bush - the former dictator is arrested'.
-
- I can't deny it was a moment of great elation. Indeed,
Mr Bush deserved to be arrested and tried - for his invasion of sovereign
Iraq and Afghanistan, for the thousands of dead and tortured men and women
wherever he took his War on Islam, for his support of ENRON, and for his
doubtful role in September 11. In light of the Patriot Act which gave the
government broader surveillance authority and erased the traditional American
liberties, and for the unconstitutional way he got to the White House,
Mr Bush can indeed be called 'a dictator'. But 'former'? Had the people
of the United States shown themselves the worthy heirs to George Washington
and Thomas Jefferson, risen up in arms and removed the tyrant?
-
- Alas, no such luck. The former dictator referred to was,
of cause, the deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. What an anticlimax!
Pictures of the humiliated Hussein, bearded, tired, confused, treated like
a captured tiger in a Zoo, were repeating endlessly. He opened his mouth,
and we were forced to look in. He looked human and frail; too human, his
dishevelled beard and large innocent eyes make him akin to Leo Tolstoy
or Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
-
- Indeed, if in December 1941, Hitler's army had not been
stopped by the 39 Red Guards of Panfilov on the outskirts of Moscow, this
would have been the fate of Joseph Stalin; to be brought in an iron cage
to Berlin and presented as 'the captured, bloody dictator'. And it would
have been Mao Zedong's fate, too, had the Chinese soldiers not stopped
General Macarthur's hordes on the banks of Yalu River in 1950. Vae victis,
woe is defeat, especially a defeat to the ruthless and arrogant enemy.
-
- I crossed the street to a Palestinian cafe, where Jerusalem
artists and teachers mingle with villagers on business in the big city
over backgammon and cardamom coffee. Gloom was hanging over the low tables
like a rain cloud in the December air. The Palestinians were distressed
and spoke in hushed tones. Their best feelings were hurt by the dishonourable
display of the captive ruler. Whether one liked Saddam Hussein or not,
he was the legitimate President of a great Arab nation, and his humiliation
was the humiliation of all Arabs.
-
- He was not the first captured ruler in the world's bloody
and long history. More than 800 years ago, the great West European Crusader
princes were captured by a victorious Arab army. Then, however, the Arab
commander, Saladin, treated the captives courteously. He did not parade
them with an open, red-painted mouth in front of his troops. But Chivalry
and Honour, so dear to an Arab heart, are not American virtues: the US
dared to attack Iraq only after ten years of UN sanctions disarmed it.
-
- The Palestinians had additional reasons to worry. Iraq
was a big and independent Arab country. It was by no means a counterbalance
to the united might of Israel and the US, but its existence could stay
the Zionist hand from particularly wild actions. In 1948, Iraqi volunteers
stopped the Israeli army expelling the Palestinian residents of Jenin and
Nablus, and saved them from the fate of homeless refugees. In 1973, the
Iraqi presence stopped Israelis moving on to Damascus. Since then, the
Iraqis have supported Palestinians, collecting money to sent to Palestinian
widows and orphans of the resistance.
-
- But the American-installed regime in Baghdad is rabidly
anti-Palestinian and pro-Israeli. Ahmad Chalabi, the American protege called
to establish friendly relations with Israel; plans to send Iraqi oil to
Haifa refineries are being discussed, and the occupation forces expelled
Palestinian refugees from their temporary homes in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein
could not do much; his anti-Islamic policy did not endear him to religious
Arabs, but he was a friend, and an independent Arab voice.
-
- Israelis in a nearby pub were excited. For them, Hussein's
capture was good news politically and economically. Since the US-led victory,
the Israeli companies have aggressively moved into Iraq. "All inquiries
about doing business in Iraq are referred to a select list of intermediaries
issued by the American authorities", I was told by an Australian businessman.
"All are Jewish and most of them are Israeli. Heading the list is
the Israeli law firm that Douglas Feith (an American extreme-Zionist official)
is a partner in". The Iraqi Jews have presented multi-billion dollar
claims for properties they claim were confiscated from them. Hussein's
capture will undermine the Iraqi resistance and allow the Israelis to increase
their share of the war spoils.
-
- But Israeli politicians foresee an even better outcome.
"Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could be offered a deal in
which he would give his captors information on how he smuggled some of
the weapons of mass destruction into Syria," said the military observer
of the Israeli daily Haaretz. "In exchange, he would face life imprisonment
and not be executed for war crimes", It will save George W. Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair' bacon, following accusations that they
lied to their people to justify war. More important, it would accomplish
an old wish of Israeli leaders: the US tanks would roll into Damascus.
With the conquest of Syria, the next stage of the Middle East subjugation
to Israel would be complete, and the road to Saudi oil riches would be
open.
-
- In short, Hussein's capture will not bring peace to Iraq
and the Middle East. Most probably, it will be used to jump-start the new
round of war in the troubled area.
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