Those who have reservations about the American war may have valid reasons... But it is important to acknowledge the existence of Iraq and the Iraqi people. A country and a society. Almost 25 million people. We must ask their opinion before we speak on their behalf.

They survived Saddam. They deserve a big "congratulations," without 'buts' and 'ifs.' Unfortunately, the Arabs didn't say this to them. They urged the Iraqis to wage... a resistance... a resistance, to support a Baathist regime that lasted a third of a century, that drove its people to two major wars and to the death of one million Iraqis, in addition to the non-Iraqis, a regime that destroyed the economy and drove four million people to seek immigration.

Can any human be asked to wage a resistance after these experiences, or are we talking about imaginary ideological beings?

There are at least two reasons allowing us to say that, in dealing with Iraq, the Arabs saw only the "cause." They didn't see Iraq, because they don't see the world as made up of countries. Of peoples. They took advantage of the opportunity to renew their declaration of having the disease of resistance. Our resistance fighters.

First, "Arab resistance" is truly an Arab one. It is not Iraqi. It is an Arab in the sense that it is non-Iraqi. Also, it is Arab in the sense that it does not belong to any country. It is everything - meaning nothing...

Second, Saddam never appeared to be so openly Arab as when he failed to "resist"... The great sympathies were on his side. They remained with him even as they avoided him personally: they supported him in invading Kuwait... The Arab resistance mania is what created an environment that deplored the call for his "stepping down" before the war in order to avoid it. Why? Because it didn't want to miss the feast of the resistance.