Their outcome is what counts

January 2003

Arabs received the capture of Saddam Hussein with mixed feelings.

While some argued that the end of a tyrannical dictator whose unwise policy has drawn his country and the whole nation into oblivion, others felt that out of pride, the ruthless man should not have been arrested at the hand of Americans.

Therefore, Arabs were living in a dilemma: their best enemy was capturing their foremost liar who despite his tyranny, styled himself as the first defendant of the Arab cause, especially Palestine.

Arabs who were angry at his arrest should keep one thing in mind: The Arab nation has learned of the true nature of its hypocritical leaders. These leaders have been oppressing their peoples for long now, of course under the pretext of salvaging what is left of Palestine.

Even if Saddam had targeted Israel with 37 of his Scud missiles that his Tel Aviv during Gulf War I in 1990, the outcome was as always close to nothing.

These Scuds proved to be a mere fiasco. They barely harmed Israel and Saddam later, and under the table, paid the “victim state” compensation sums that probably contributed to extending his mandate at the head of his police state.

People should not be evaluated by what they say, or for that purpose what they do in a theatrical manner. People should be judged according to the outcome of their actions. In the Arab case, leaders have done nothing for the improvement of the Arab situation yet.

Supporters of late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser cite his speeches, count his deeds and forget that the once popular leader was the first Arab president to create a police state, that after 18 years of his rule he did not organize any kind of democratic elections, that he lost the major Arab war against Israel and that all what he left after his death was a useless impoverished police state with a corrupted bureaucracy.