Arabs watch Saddam’s demise in disbelief, by Lucy Fielder (edited)

 

Source:  Yahoo! News downloaded 9/4/03

 

Cairo (Reuters):  Arabs watched in disbelief on Wednesday as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, described by one Moroccan as the Arab world’s “best dictator”,

lost Baghdad to US-led forces without a fight.

 

“It’s like a movie. I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” said Adel a lawyer in Beirut. 

“Why didn’t he just give up to start with if this was all the resistance he could muster? Instead of wasting all those lives for nothing”

“It seemed that Iraqis were all with Saddam, now it looks like many didn’t like him.  Maybe those destroying  the statue are rebels against Saddam’s rule,” engineer Magdy Tawfiq said as he watched Saddam’s statue being toppled by a US tank.

 

 

But security guard Waleed Tawfiq said he still did not believe Saddam was out. “I will be upset if it turns out Saddam has lost power. He tried to defend his land. If he is dead he will be a martyr.”

 

Most Arabs have no love for Saddam. But his defiance toward the US has been met with approval in a region angry at Washington’s support for Israel and perceived interference in Arab affairs, and the presence of US forces in Arab countries.