How the U.S. is hurting the Arabs.

last updated 8 January 2015

Tunisia

Tahar Selmi

Arab countries have good reason to believe that the U.S. is conniving against them, said Tahar Selmi in Tunis Hebdo. The Americans insisted on sentencing Saddam Hussein to death, even though executing the former dictator is sure to unleash a bloodbath. In Iraq itself, some 450,000 former Baathist army soldiers are prepared to rampage, and so is “the entire population of Tikrit,” Saddam’s hometown. But it won’t stop there. The “cascade of violence” could easily spill over to the Sunni Gulf countries. And if this weren’t bad enough, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that Washington, “despite its war-like rhetoric, has been holding secret meetings with Tehran.” America knows it has lost the war in Iraq, so it is looking now to “build bridges” with the non-Arab country that will take over: Iraq’s huge Shiite neighbor, Iran. Everyone knows that the Iraq report by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker recommends talking to Iran. Indeed, Baker’s team “has already met with important officials” there. What a catastrophe. The U.S. better realize that if it hands control of the region over to Iran, it could lose its Arab allies in its precious war on terror.