Liberals-
After the Mugging

MEMRI excerpts some of what Liberal Arabs are saying on the 5 year anniversary of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq. Here are some excerpts of the excerpts:

Iraqi Journalist 'Abd Al-Jabbar Al-'Atabi: "You see that people, despite their proud grief, are talking about hope, and optimism, and the happiness to come. Despite the confusion, the anarchy, and the unconceivable occurrences, you hear the words: the breakthrough is at hand. They speak of the democracy that they had misunderstood, and they emphasize that these five years have taught them a lot and enriched their experience. They have come to know the true from the false and to distinguish between the good and the evil. You hear people saying: April 9 is a national holiday, despite the imported terrorism, or that concocted by the former regime, that came in its wake."

Egyptian Journalist Ashraf Radi: "There is no doubt but that Operation Iraqi Freedom has many enemies, both within Iraq and in the neighboring countries… There is no future for Iraq without democracy. Those who sacrificed, and continue to sacrifice, are worthy of liberty, and they will never accept any prize less than this…"

Palestinian Liberal Ahmad Abu Matar: "How should the Iraqis deal with this new situation? The objective answer to this question must draw on similar experiences from recent history. Two countries, Japan and Germany, were also placed under American occupation. How did these two countries deal with the new situation, which was entirely analogous with the situation in Iraq? They both considered the occupation an opportunity to reorder their own affairs [and get rid of] all the negative sides and errors that invited this occupation - from rewriting the school curricula in Japan to putting an end to Nazi ideology and practice in Germany. And look how far Germany and Japan have come."

Khudayr Taher: "We forsook you and betrayed you - we, whose history is an expression of massacres, conflagrations, and ruin. We killed you, and we killed our dream and aspiration of reaching the sun, the moon, and the stars - [we killed our dream] of availing ourselves of the opportunity to live as true humans, thanks to your presence."

Shaker Al-Nabulsi: "The new 'Baghdad 2003' has transformed the war between [the Iraq of] the Saddam Hussein era and America into a war between liberalism and fundamentalism, between modernity and reaction, between dictatorship and democracy…

"It is inevitable that every country and every people, after liberation, pass through a stage of corruption, thievery, and lack of security; but this stage will be the womb that begets the stage of modernity, creation, and the new liberal thought. The best examples of this are Japan, [South] Korea, Germany, and Eastern Europe."

"The best evidence of the advance of Arab liberalism in the past five years is the fact that so many liberal writers have appeared on the stage of the Arab media and have expressed their views on various Arab issues and problems. This is one of the many kindnesses that the new 'Baghdad 2003' has bestowed on us.

"This shows that as time passes Arab liberalism is gaining for itself more and more writers and intellectuals…"

Yes, we must get out of Iraq now. Our valiant, albeit uneducated, youth could be spared a useless death in Iraq. Instead, they could be honored by a drunken high speed meeting with an American bridge abutment. They would also be spared the indignity of international loss of reputation as displayed by the following Australian soldier's account in a letter to his father:

….don’t get me wrong, we are good at what we do but the Yanks are so much better…..they are complete at what they do, how they do it and their attitude is awesome….they don’t complain they just get on with the job and they do it right…

I feel safer just knowing that the US Army is close by…

No questions asked, no glory sought, the Americans would just fight with us and for us because that is their nature, to protect those in need of protection…

….what gets to me is that the Yanks don’t walk around with a “we are better than you attitude” and they could because they are, they treat us as equals and as brothers in arms. If nothing else, coming here has taught me that the Americans are a truly great Nation and a truly great bunch of people…1

We must spare our best and brightest from this humiliating loss of self-esteem. Pull out now!