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Such reasoning gives a glimpse into the source of Saddam's powerful appeal among ordinary Arabs. "Saddam's support, let's face it, is very, very large," says Ghassan Salame, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the University of Paris. "It's not that the man is personally charismatic. It's that he's viewed as someone who is shaking an unacceptable status quo." Even in Syria, whose authoritarian President Hafez Assad despises Saddam and tolerates no dissent, the Iraqi has a following. "Saddam is a hero in Syria because he is breaking the head of the U.S.," says Issam al-Lahham, a rug merchant in Damascus. "He is sticking his finger up its nose. He has made America crazy."
With Arab instincts already so conditioned against the West, the outbreak of shooting could bring a cataclysmic reaction from the Arab masses. Terrorist attacks on Western targets are a likelihood. Internal challenges to Arab governments supporting Desert Shield are a possibility. "A military victory against Iraq will be difficult to handle," says Francois Burgat, an Arabist at the Center for Economic, Legal and Social Research Studies in Cairo. "Any regime that shares in the defeat and humiliation of another Arab army will find itself in a very bad situation." Even if he is trounced, Saddam Hussein may yet shake the status quo.