DUBAI, July 24: There were no regrets in Thursday’s Arab press over the death of Saddam Hussein’s notorious sons, but newspapers doubted that the killing of Uday and Qusay would ease anti-US resistance in Iraq.
“Those defending Iraq are unknown people whose statues are not erected on the streets and whose activities do not hinge on the presence or otherwise of Saddam, Uday, Qusay and all the clique that ruled the country with iron and fire,” wrote Saudi Arabia’s Al-Watan.
Resistance “will continue in various forms so long as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow,” the daily said.
Like their father, Uday and Qusay had become irrelevant to Iraqis the moment Baghdad fell to US forces on April 9, “because the capital which they abandoned after plundering its riches can defend itself without them,” Al-Watan added.
Al-Yaum, another Saudi daily, said even Saddam’s capture by the US-led coalition would not stem attacks on coalition forces so long as basic services were not restored.
Al-Jazirah, also Saudi, said Iraqi resistance fighters did “not want to have anything to do with Saddam,” while Al-Nadwa expressed the hope that the killing of his two sons in a US raid in northern Iraq Tuesday would speed up US moves to hand over power to the Iraqis.
Also in Saudi Arabia, the English-language Arab News called the pair’s death a “victory” for both the Americans and the Iraqi people, but cautioned it would not end the ongoing violence.
“That Uday and Qusay Hussein are dead is a victory for the Americans and, far more important, a victory for the Iraqi people. Both needed the break,” the paper wrote.
But “by concentrating all their efforts on Saddam and the Baathists ... the Americans may well be ignoring other sources of resistance, other sources of violence in Iraq,” it said.
“The disparate groups that make up the country are ... clamoring to make their voices heard. Perhaps the resistance is rather a violent medley of messages, to the ordinary Iraqis as much as to the Americans, that these different groups exist and are a force to be reckoned with.”
In the United Arab Emirates, the daily Akhbar Al-Arab said resistance to occupation is never a function of a single individual.
In Iraq’s case, “the absence of Saddam and his two sons from the scene might in fact encourage Iraqis who dream of an Iraq free of both Saddam and the Americans to join the ranks of the resistance,” the paper said.—AFP
