One of Ours

...The Arab world, in its entirety, still bets on the return of Ba'athist rule to Iraq, and another part of the Arab world, even more deep in illusion, still bets on the return of Saddam, describing him as the 'the symbol, 'the leader neccessity', or the Shahid who has not died yet. And the Arab world, still living in illusion, believes in the Iraqi muqqawama ('resistance'), which is in fact a terrorist muqqawala (contractors) and not a national resistance,...That Arab world believes this terrorist muqqawala will win in Iraq over the will of the Iraqi people, and over the Iraqi future. That same Arab world living in illusion, believed that the army of Muqtada Al-Sadr will join forces with the remnants of the armed 'contractors', posing a significant threat to coalition troops forcing them to pull out from Iraq leaving it to be ruled by these groups. Today the Army of Al-Mahdi is backing [down] and the illusioned Arab world is biting its fingers grieving over its lost hope. That same Arab world living in illusion believed that a scandal caused by a group of sick demented soldiers from the coalition such as the scandal of Abu Ghraib prison will tip the balance in favour of the armed 'contractors' in Iraq which announced recently that it will pay their wages in pure gold, instead of bank notes, fixing the prices of 'necks' in a statement by Bin Laden himself.

The question here is: Why did the Arab world live in all this illusion throughout the last half century?

The answer to this question is that the Arab world acts cowardly with itself, self-delusionary, lacking the neccessary courage to recognise and admit to the facts on the ground as was done in Japan and Germany after WWII, and that the Arab world lacks the necessary courage to admit to its self-insufficiencies, its weakness, poverty, ignorance, and its poor scientific and practical capabilities. Therefore, the Arab world will never advance as long as it regards itself advanced and not behind, it will never learn as long as it regards itself learned and not ignorant, it will never seek power as long as it regards itself powerful and not weak. This neurotic swelling, this pathologic tumour, this nostalgia of submitting in humiliation to the dead glories of the past in the Arab psyche, and this phobia were all reasons that we live such a grand illusion. Since the Arab world believes to this day -as told by its civil and armed religious institutions- that the road to the future passes only through the holy cities, that the past is the nerve of the future, that who has no first has no last, that heritage is better than modernity, that ancestors are better than the inheritors, that the rule of ancestors from the grave is better than the rule of inheritors today. The Arab world believes to this day -as told by its civil and armed Pan-Arab and religious institutions- that Andalus (Spain) will be returned, that Palestine will be liberated from the river to the sea, that Iskenderun will be returned [i.e. the Turks will be conquered by the Arabs], that Al-Mahdi will reappear, that the rule of Saddam Hussein and mass graves will return to Iraq, and that Saddam as he won before, with the support of Pan-Arab and religious institutions headed by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Ba'ath party- in the first Gulf War from behind trenches, will win again today, from behind bars!

The assailants in the eastern oil city of Khobar killed some hostages after Saudi commandos stormed a building on Sunday to rescue about 50 people being held, said security sources. The source did not identify the hostages' nationalities or how many were killed. The body of a dead hostage was reportedly dragged through the streets...

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A purported al-Qaida statement said its followers had "slaughtered" a Japanese, a Swede and an Italian hostage. The statement, carried on an Arabic-language website, vowed to rid the peninsula of "infidels"...

The hostage-takers were reported to have killed 16 people, nine Saudis and seven foreigners, on Saturday before fleeing to the vast Oasis complex. The unprecedented hostage-taking in the world's biggest crude oil exporting country raised the stakes in the kingdom's year-long fight against anti-government fighters.

The Muslim Brotherhood condemned the violence, saying it was a crime against the country and the people. In a statement received by Aljazeera, the movement said such incidents were part "of the US-Zionist project targeting Islam and trying to link it with terrorism and violence".

The assailants' suspected leader was arrested along with two other attackers, said security sources. Two hostage takers were also killed in the raid. The crisis ended about 25 hours after it began on Saturday with attackers opening fire and engaging in shootouts with Saudi security forces at the compound and two oil-related facilities.

Earlier, Saudi commandos raided the compound. Witnesses saw three military helicopters dropping special forces on to the roof of a building in the compound amid gunfire. An earlier attempt to storm the building was aborted when Saudi forces discovered it was booby-trapped with explosives.

Saudis were shaken to the core on Sunday. "This makes you so depressed. This is something alien to Saudis. We are stunned and very upset," said Said al-Mansur, a 22-year-old student. Many Khobar residents, who for years blended easily with expatriate oil workers, said they feared the attack would force expatriates to pack up and go.