Ugly American, Arab Without a Nose

A brilliant column by Mona Eltahawy, published today. She is arguing that America and the Arab world need each other. Karen Hughes’ recent visit to Egypt and the Middle East is illustrating her points. Money quotes:

We will do anything to stand up to America and prove a point to America, forgetting in the meantime that ultimately we’re hurting ourselves the most.

And nowhere is this more obvious than in the Arab world’s reaction to the bloodbath that is washing over Iraq.

...we have a blind spot of our own towards the Shia of Iraq. Muslim terrorists slaughter fellow Muslims in Iraq but the Arab world – from where many of these terrorists come from - issues weak and meaningless condemnations because it is mostly Shia who are dying.

But this is what the Arab world forgets: while it stands by wanting the Americans to suffer defeat in Iraq, it is the Arab world that is being defeated by the terrorists who have turned their guns on the Shia of Iraq.

What the Arab world forgets is that those guns can just as easily be turned against the rest of us, just as the suicide bombings that were once used against Israel only are now being used against everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim.