Even more amazing than the unprecedented military victory of American forces in Iraq may be the utter confusion, searing soul-searching, hand-wringing, and self-finger-pointing that many Arabs in Arab nations are now engaged in:

April 9: Where are the Arabs heading to and from where? A few questions…(Part I)

Is it enough to say that what happened in Baghdad on April 9, 2003 and the fall of the city was just a defeat of the tyrant’s regime, or was it the fall of the entire Arab world? </p> <p>Why do some of us still deny that our modern history constitutes a long series of defeats which, and unfortunately, none of us see as has culminated with April 9, 2003? </p> <p>The Palestinian uprising, instead of reaping positive results, has put the Palestinian issue and Israeli occupation at the bottom of the international priority list and depicted the Palestinian individual as a ‘suicide bomber’ rather than a freedom fighter. Moreover, even the veteran Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has been besieged after he was perceived as a symbol of survival and is now forced to sideline himself permanently. </p> <p>Is it enough to say that we only have lost our military battles? But what about our slogans of Arab unity, freedom, liberation and a better life – have they been defeated or affected? And our efforts for growth and development – have they been defeated or affected either?</p> <p>Has the Arab national ever read the UN report about manpower development in the Arab world, and if so, where do we stand amongst the world community? (Hint: a little higher - more advanced - than African nations) Do Arabs know the exact number of unemployed and poor amongst our nations? Do they know the value the smuggled money, claimed to be invested abroad, brings should it be repatriated back to their countries?</p> <p>Does an Arab national know how many Arabs were forced to leave the Arab world for good to live ‘freely and happily’ in the countries of the ‘enemies and infidels’? Do we know how many Arab scientists are working in the countries of the ‘enemies and infidels’?<br /> Was Saddam the only Arab leader who had 36 palaces and 10 billion dollars abroad? What about the wealthy Arab individuals, particularly the rulers, the oil Sheikhs, the Kings and Princes? Has the Arab citizen seen the reports published in magazines such as Fortune and Forbes (which some may view as Western propaganda) about the wealth of their own monarchs and heads of government? Is this uneven distribution of wealth fair and deserved by our so-called leaders?<br /> Was Saddam alone who promised his son Qusay to succeed him? What about Jamal Mubarak (son of Hosni Mubarak), Ali Ali Abdullah Saleh (son of the Yemeni president), Seif al Islam al Qaddafi (the son of Moamar of Libya) and Bashar al Assad? Haven’t the military defeats come as a result of failure to achieve development, unity and freedom? Was Saddam’s regime an evil implanted in the region – a Western and/or Zionist conspiracy? Isn’t it true that we as people and a nation applauded him when he led us from war to war, invasion of another Arab country, and finally one large defeat to the largest-ever Arab defeat? </p> <p>Isn’t it true that the Arab national who applauded Saddam Hussein and danced in front of him are now hailing the American (invading) forces as liberators? Isn’t it true that the same Arab who was threatening American soldiers with death and slaughter is now looting their cities and destroying the establishments they have worked so hard to build over the years with their blood, sweat, hard work, money, tears, and not to mention the oppression they had to deal with? Aren’t the Arab people a part of all of this? Who is responsible for what we have seen and what we are witnessing unfold in front of our eyes on television sets; rulers or people? </p> <p>Is the problem a matter of Arab culture and/or Arab mentality that understands history unilaterally? Is it an understanding dominated by the thought of the Arabs’ past heroism and greatness (which ended more than 600 years ago) without giving consideration to compromise, reconciliation and logical thinking? Will Arabs learn from the defeat of April 9th as they learnt from the 1948, 1965, 1967, 1982 defeats (amongst others)? </p> <p>Is it enough to say that we resisted in Iraq for 22 days, in Beirut for 80 and in Jenin for 13 days? Is it enough to just count the days of resistance in order to reflect on our defeats as victories? Are wars, conflicts, and armed struggles measured by resistance and the number of martyrs, or are they measured by the overall results on the ground, and hence the final outcome?</p> <p>Are we a nation destined only for “martyrdom”? Where is victory and where do our faults lie? What are the causes for all these defeats, which we insist on labeling as victories? Why do we insist on a methodology that has been proven useless and utterly abhorred by the international community? Why did we depict an international embarrassment such as September 11th and as a victory?

Bassam al Antari-Albawaba.com:

Shocked by the sudden fall of Baghdad in the hands of the US forces without any tangible resistance, Palestinian faction leaders said this “earthquake” would enhance their determination to continue resistance and uprising against the Israeli occupation. “What has happened surprised and shocked us,” Abdullah al Shami, a prominent leader of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza Strip, told Albawaba. </p> <p>He added, “we expected the Iraqi people to resist longer, particularly in view of the fact that the aggressors are the Americans who want to redraw the map of the whole region.” “What we discovered was that most of the Iraqi people took a neutral stance in the war which the isolated Iraqi regime fought alone with the US forces. This showed the extent of the weakness of Sddam’s regime in front of this force and explains its noticeable collapse,” he continued. </p> <p>Describing the grievance of the Palestinians for the fall Baghdad and its impact on their morale, al Shami said, “the sadness and despair on the faces of Palestinians were evident yesterday while they were walking in the streets.”

Jordanian political analyst Uraib Rantawi:

When asked whether Arabs can face-up to such challenges, Rantawi asserted “there are certain rules we [Arabs] should stick to, rather than have them imposed on us by the outside [US]. This scenario was played out entirely in the case of the now-toppled Iraqi president, and is a strong message [by the US] to the conservative and totalitarian Arab regimes.” </p> <p>He added, “What happened in Baghdad should be a lesson for all of us. If the Arabs cannot make the changes required in their own countries, it is quite clear that the US will.” </p> <p>Rantawi reiterated, “it is better for us to counter the challenges ahead of us in a way that will only better serve our national interests, rather than wait until solutions are imposed on us in a manner that will only serve the greater American interest.”

...and it is my belief that such will continue unless/until America's esteem and stature is toppled or severely damaged. 

How might the Arab David topple the American Goliath?  A combination of several of the scenarios below could quicksand the ground that we patrol mighty fast:

1) Extensively impugn the morality of the troops and/or civilian contractors stationed in Iraq (and, by extension, American culture) with repeated reports of supposed (invented and/or real) rape, pandering, gambling, theft, recklessness, and, yes, even Christian evangelizing.  (the 'immorality' factor)

2) Discredit the elections when they occur through disruptions and violence.  Possibly even car-bombing election locations or dispensing biological or chemical agents into such thus rendering the election process incomplete and unreliable.  (the 'Arab chad' factor)

3) Insure (if necessary) that weapons of mass destruction are never found.  If they are 'never found' (and how long do we wait for 'never'?), how many will clamor that our presence is illegitimate in being based on 'false pretenses'?  (the 'gun never smoked' factor)

4) A series of successful assassinations of 'leading democratic candidates' in Iraq supposedly to prove that America is failing to provide a safe milieu for 'its' vision of a blossoming democracy.  (the 'democracy is deadly' factor)

5) Assassinating George Bush to prove that vengeance is Allah's.  (the 'I'm rubber, you're glue' factor)

6) Blaming epidemic outbreaks of deadly contagious disease on Americans due to the deterioration of the hygienic infrastructure from war and/or to the supposed (invented and/or real) vector transmission from Americans to Iraqis of AIDS, SARS, or any other disease that hasn't yet massively befallen them, but may yet come to do so while Americans are still present in large numbers. (the 'your presence is toxic' factor)

7) The construction of a McDonald's in downtown Baghdad (the 'omg Ronald isn't Muslim!' factor)

Lately, it seems, I am, at times and involuntarily, unable to articulate anything other than utterly simple sentences.

Yesterday, while helping my friend Mike implement a DSL line troublesome and non-functional since January, I reverted to calling DSL technical assistance.  Of course, one of my professions is ‘tech support’, so the tech that I reached and I immediately established a good rapport ‘talking tech’ at fairly elevated levels.  At least, until I asked him: “Why must things be so complex?  Why can’t things just leave other things alone?”  He was dumbfounded and speechless.  I had regressed to absolute simplicity and broken the ‘tech-talk’ trust.  Mike, who had been solemnly listening to the conversation for half an hour, had to leave the room laughing when I tumbled into my ‘one hand clapping’ zen-ism.

What can I say?  Minimalism is beckoning me.