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To be sure, some Arabs were thrilled by events and are seizing the chance to discredit an order in which oppressors like Saddam can flourish. "The popular joy makes a mockery of the Arab system that has falsely claimed to be fighting in the people's name," says Abdul Rahman al-Rashed, editor of the Saudi-owned daily Asharq al Awsat. Hisham Kassem, of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, hopes Saddam's fall will lead to the end of autocrats elsewhere, but says, "I have to be very careful with that opinion." Siding too closely with America these days, he explains, can be a risky proposition. --By Scott MacLeod. With reporting by Aparisim Ghosh/Amman and Amany Radwan/Cairo