Ceaucescu of the Arabs
A wedge widens in the Middle East.
By Walid Phares NRO
— Walid Phares is a professor of Middle East Studies and an MSNBC Middle East and Terrorism analyst.
What happened Saturday in Iraq? Coalition forces captured Saddam Hussein, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. The historic moment is, in fact, broader, more significant, and more comprehensive. The capture's details were astonishing: For example, the commander of the one-million-soldier army did not fire a shot. Saddam's lack of resistance is intriguing to many in the West, and embarrassing to the many rabid America-haters in the Middle East.
"He should have killed himself," shouted Arab nationalists and jihadists on al-Jazeera. But the man who dodged assassination conspiracies for three decades, hiding behind lies and brutality, did not design himself for a heroic end. He condemned about a million human beings to death, but surrendered rather than confront it himself.
Another interesting detail was the reaction to the media images: The series of pictures showing Saddam at his lowest sent different chills from country to country. The victims of his horror screamed for revenge, while the supporters of pan-Arabism and Islamism cried for the loss of his honor and dignity. The tableau was picturesque.
By the hour, the credibility of the region's so-called revolutionaries was crumbling fast. The Arab satellite networks aired live messages by concerned citizens, which showed a collapse of coherence. Furious callers from Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Gaza raged against the humiliation of Saddam's Uruba, or "Arabness." They all felt aggrieved by the intrusiveness of the former dictator's dental check-up.
"You don't do this to leaders, even if you don't like them." shouted the angry men. To whom angrier Arabs from Iraq, Kuwait, and overseas responded harshly: "Did you forget how Saddam treated his people?" "When Arab mouths were opened under Saddam," argued the victims, "it wasn't to check their medical records. It was to place a bullet inside."
A wedge is now widening in the Middle East. Arabs are either holding onto the past and to the Saddams of the region, or they're tearing down the walls of silence and grabbing the future with their hands.
Another noteworthy trend: Many of the old regime's detractors are beginning to openly voice their criticisms. Emerging from the Arab underground, many men and a few more women are getting bolder, more willing to take on their regimes. The capture of Saddam has captivated and inspired them. "So it is possible to see a dictator being arrested like this, and brought to justice," wrote human-rights activists on the leading dissident Arab website. The Kuwaiti daily al-Siyassa said "No one is shielded from justice anymore."
While American media pundits rush to fit the successful Saddam hunt into the framework of presidential elections, the people of the Middle East have more serious challenges to face.
When I received the call on Sunday morning about Saddam's capture, I was in Montreal, a city immersed in Francophone culture. Before I found a flight back to New York, I was graciously invited to do a live half-hour interview on the French CBC. When asked to describe my first impression of the arrest, I used one term almost subconsciously: "This is the Ceaucescu of the Arabs." A moment of silence followed the magic comparison before the anchors nodded their heads. The images of the 1979 execution of the Romanian dictator remain a powerful comparative reference. With some minor points of difference, Saddam's fall is Ceaucescian, in essence.
But the comparison carries grave consequences. Iraq is no isolated Romania. It is surrounded by equally brutal regimes with wide-reaching extensions. Beyond the frustration of shocked pan-Arabists and Islamist following Saddam's capture, the most violent aftershocks rocked high places outside of Iraq's borders. Saddam fled his palaces and hid in a hole, but he was still found by the Coalition of the Willing. But in Tehran, Damascus, Tripoli, and Khartoum, the masters of the palaces know very well that the next time dictators are extracted from holes, it won't necessarily be by infidel soldiers.
There's no matching the power of the example. Last Sunday, the Ceaucescu of the Arabs was caught. The victims of abuse have seen those pictures; the rest will be history in progress.
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