Now the U.S. Has to Live Up to Its Promises

The fall of Baghdad on Wednesday unleashed conflicting emotions in Iraq, the Arab world and the United States. It also opened a wide range of options for what happens next and generated uncertainties about how Iraqis and other Arabs will see and treat the U.S.

The initial television images of Iraqis dancing in the streets, toppling statues of Saddam Hussein and welcoming American troops accurately reflect sentiments today, but long-term Arab political attitudes toward the U.S. will be determined largely by American acts and policies in the days to come.

Although the American invasion wasn’t supported by most Arabs and its motives were not generally trusted, those feelings can be tempered if the U.S. now makes the right moves. Whether Iraq’s future is stable and peaceful, and how Americans are viewed in the years ahead, will depend almost entirely on two closely related issues: Will Washington build a truly democratic system before it leaves Iraq and will the U.S. deal fairly with other regional issues of concern to Arabs, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict?

Citizenship and human rights in the Arab world are probably the single most persistent, undefined and unresolved issue that has plagued Arabs for the last half-century. A democratic, well-governed Iraq, helped into being by the U.S., could provide the breakthrough that Arabs fervently seek in establishing governance systems that respond to their basic demands for human dignity and social equity. But if the U.S. military administration of Iraq is a long, drawn-out affair and spawns an Iraqi power structure that favors some Iraqis to the disadvantage of others, anti-American political sentiment and even armed resistance are likely to surface quickly, inside Iraq and elsewhere.

Arabs broadly mistrust Washington’s aims and plans for Iraq in large part because they have long suffered its striking double standards throughout the Middle East. The Arab world will keep one eye on Washington’s policies inside Iraq and the other on its actions on Arab-Israeli peacemaking and promoting democracy and human rights in other parts of the region.

The most consistent and fervent recent criticism of the U.S. by Arabs has been aimed at its double standard in waging war twice in Iraq to implement U.N. resolutions there while simultaneously acquiescing to Israel’s defiance of scores of U.N. resolutions and to its 36-year-old occupation of Palestinian lands. The Arabs don’t expect the U.S. to muster another armada to militarily force Israel to end its occupation, but they do expect Washington to use its political, economic and diplomatic muscle to implement the “road map” to Palestinian-Israeli peace, which aims for adjacent Palestinian and Israeli states enjoying equal security and national rights. More American lassitude in the face of Israel’s colonization of occupied Palestinian lands would only strengthen Arab critics who accuse the U.S. of a duplicitous double standard that mainly serves pro-Israeli interests.

Similarly, Arabs will watch carefully to see whether the White House’s recent enthusiasm for democracy in Iraq is unique to that oil-rich Arab land or whether Washington finally implements a consistent policy that seeks to promote democracy, pluralism and accountability in all Arab countries. Most Arabs doubt the U.S. commitment to real democracy because the U.S. has funded, armed and backed quite a few autocratic, corrupt and unaccountable Arab regimes. If this norm persists, so will the widespread Arab disdain of American policies.

Anti-American sentiments have swept the Arab world in recent decades primarily as a reaction to perceived unfair U.S. policies on the Arab-Israeli conflict and U.S. support for a stubborn, autocratic Arab political order. Iraq could be just another stage in this trend, or it could mark the start of a new American policy that works for equal rights among Arabs and Israelis and pluralistic democracy for all Arab states.