This changes things not only in Iraq
As I started to say yesterday, before joviality took over, in latter years, Saddam was notable, strange as this may seem now, as a symbol of Arab military strength. He was the one who fought the mighty U.S.A and lived to see another day. Arabs living in more benign dictatorships adored him as a great leader, restorer of Arab pride. They were oblivious of the terrible suffering he inflicted on his people.

The so-called “Arab street", misled by Arab intelligentsia (itself egged on by western intelligentsia), made the same mistake about the U.S. that the Palestinians made about Israel. In both cases humaneness and willingness for compromise were interpreted as weakness.