A Million March
in London
but,
Faced with Disaster, the Arabs are Like Mice
by Robert Fisk
Dissident Voice
February 18, 2003
Could
anything be more pathetic than the Arab demonstration against war? A million
Britons marched in London, more than half a million Spaniards in Madrid;
200,000 in Paris and New York. And Cairo? Well, just 600 Egyptians turned up in
their capital to protest at America's forthcoming invasion of brotherly Iraq –
surrounded by 3,000 security police. By way of contrast – brave contrast –
2,000 Israelis protested in Tel Aviv against the war.
What on
earth is it with the Arabs? Of all people, they – and they alone – are likely
to suffer in this American invasion of their homeland. They – and they alone –
have the will and the ability to understand that this US military adventure is
intended – as Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, frankly declared last week –
to change the map of the Middle East.
Yet, faced
with catastrophe, the Arabs are like mice. Their leaders may agree with their
people – but they will not let their people say so.
President
Mubarak of Egypt has made it all too clear there is little he can do to rein in
President Bush. King Abdullah of Jordan has said there is almost
"nothing" the Arabs can do to avert war. Which means Arabs ask, more
and more, what their leaders are for. The presidents and kings of the Arab
world agree with their people, it seems, but do not wish them to express the
views they themselves hold.
It's one
thing for Mr Mubarak to criticise the United States – quite another for
Egyptians to do so. What on earth, one wonders, did the 3,000 Egyptian security
police think as they surrounded their protesting brothers and sisters?
True,
200,000 Syrians protested against the war in Damascus. But no one protests in
Syria unless they are in accord with their government, which means that this
particular "popular" protest was arranged by the Arab Socialist Baath
Party of Syria. But at least the Syrians did not carry, as their neighbours in
Beirut did, portraits of Saddam Hussein. For in Arab capital cities, there is a
special problem. Repeatedly, Arab opposition to war is trammelled up with Arab
support for the Iraqi dictator.
In Cairo
two weeks ago, pictures of the Iraqi leader detracted from anti-war protests.
In Beirut on Saturday, men who had fought each other in Lebanon's 15-year civil
war came together to oppose America's invasion of Iraq, but were then demeaned
by far greater numbers of Lebanese who supported Saddam Hussein and carried
pictures of the wretched man to prove it.
Sayed
Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla army, castigated
the Arabs for their "silence" and urged them to
"re-evaluate" their attitude towards Europe following the protests
against war – this, remember, from the man who leads an organisation whose
satellite groups once held dozens of Westerners hostage in Lebanon during the
1980s.
Sayed
Nasrallah also deplored the fact that "the greatest Muslim demonstration
in history" – the gathering of two million Muslim pilgrims at Mecca for
the Haj – had not used the slogan "Death to America" or "No to
War". Nasrallah also accused "certain" Arab regimes of
"supporting the war or approving of it in secret". And, of course, we
all know who they are.
Robert Fisk is
an award winning foreign correspondent for The Independent (UK), where this article first appeared. He is the author
of Pity Thy Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon (The Nation Books, 2002
edition)