Arab Reaction: Coping With Jubilation

Cairo University freshman Ayman Fouad has been glued to al-Jazeera, the Qatari satellite channel, for much of the past three weeks. In the beginning, he cheered on Iraqi fighters as they battled U.S. and British forces. Suddenly, he found himself watching images of American troops riding tanks into Baghdad, helping Iraqis pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein. "I couldn't believe my eyes," Fouad says. But then, he says, he realized what was really happening. "The Americans paid these people," he asserts. "Saddam is tricking the Americans. He will fight them until he kicks them out."

The Arab psyche took a...

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