On April 1, 2012, prominent media figure Faisal Al-Qassem, who hosts the popular Al-Jazeera talk show "The Opposite Direction," published an article in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq. In it, he claimed that the Iraqi opposition that fought Saddam Hussein and cooperated with the Americans for that purpose deserves an Arab apology. Al-Qassem pointed out that today, the calls for external intervention made by Arab oppositionists battling their tyrannical rulers are considered acts of patriotism, while the opposition to them is considered treasonous.
The following are excerpts from the article:[1]
"External military aid is currently perceived as legitimate so long as it is used to bring about liberation from dictatorship. [Therefore,] shouldn't the Arab peoples, scholars and oppositionists apologize to the Iraqi people and opposition who opposed the rule of [former Iraqi] president Saddam Hussein? For years, there wasn't a single accusation that the Arab media and Arab peoples did not hurl at the Arab oppositionists and anyone who worked with the Americans at the turn of this century to topple the previous Iraqi regime... The entire Arab street saw the Arab politicians who coordinated with the Americans prior to their invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a group of traitors and agents, simply because they cooperated with Uncle Sam in order to topple the [Saddam] Hussein regime, which they saw as an oppressive dictatorship.
"The surprising thing is that many still treat the members of the [Iraqi] government as American [agents] returning on top of U.S. tanks. This, knowing full well that most Arab oppositionists nowadays call on the Americans to help them topple certain [Arab] regimes, with the full blessing of the Arab street, even if it requires a massive American assault on the relevant Arab capitals...
"In the near past, all Arab signs raised [at demonstrations] condemned external intervention and warned of its goals and repercussions. However, now they condemn all those who do not intervene or who warn against such intervention. I have noticed that, in some of the Arab revolutions, entire days of protest were devoted to calling for intervention or venting fury at those who were too lazy to intervene. Have you seen a single Arab protest condemning NATO's intervention in Libya? No.
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"The demand for external military aid, even in return for something, is no longer considered 'the work of Satan, which is to be avoided.'[2] It has become legitimate, nay, absolutely necessary, and an obligation incumbent upon every individual Muslim [fard 'ayn]... The patriots are the ones calling for foreign aid and welcoming it, and the traitors are those who object to it. Many people no longer hesitate to say that they now understand Ahmad Chalabi's call to the Americans to strike the Iraqi regime, and even apologize to him. Furthermore, they can now understand [American-Iraqi professor] Kanan Makiya, who said: 'The sound of American attacks against Saddam's army are the sweetest music to my ears.'
"I was very surprised to hear an Arab youth on one of the [TV] channels warn his own military of Obama's mighty jets. I [also] heard many people, including authors, media personalities and activists, say that millions of Arabs no longer distinguish between local oppressive tyrants who use failed slogans, and those who we recently fought against and considered enemies, occupiers and invaders. One of them clearly stated: 'There is no longer a difference between the American invader and the Zionist enemy on the one hand, and the local enemies represented by the Arab tyrants on the other.' [In fact,] the recent Arab revolutions have proven to many peoples that the invaders and the enemies are more merciful than what the great Yemeni poet Al-Baradoni called 'the national [i.e., local] imperialist.' One respectable sheikh said recently: 'The French imperialist showed us more mercy than our own tyrants do today. At least when we fought the French and fled to the mosques to protect ourselves, the French soldiers respected the sanctity of the mosques and did not enter to kill us and defile them. However, for the contemporary Arab tyrants and their criminal gangs, attacking mosques and destroying them has become easier than drinking water.
"One Libyan journalist wondered what Al-Qadhafi would have done to the city of Benghazi, which seceded from his rule, if external [forces] had not intervened. Perhaps the city would not have existed today. One Iraqi journalist said: We were the first, and you followed in our path – mocking the Arabs who attacked Iraqis for accepting American help to topple Saddam Hussein. He is no doubt justified in his mockery, now that Arabs applaud the calls for international intervention in order to topple one tyrant or another."
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