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   Gulf Arabs Reject 'Arrogant' U.S. Moves to Hit Iraq
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   Aug 12, 9:47 am ET

   By Fahd Frayyan

   RIYADH (Reuters) - Gulf Arabs Monday blasted President Bush's threats
   to strike Iraq, saying their opposition stemmed from anger at
   perceived U.S. arrogance and not from any love for Saddam Hussein.

   Many citizens of this oil-rich region, where thousands of U.S. troops
   are based, are already angry at the United States for backing Israel,
   battling a Palestinian uprising in which at least 1,498 Palestinians
   and 587 Israelis have been killed.

   Bush's threat to strike Iraq, for its alleged development of mass
   destruction weapons, is seen as further proof of what Arabs believe is
   Washington's disregard for Arab lives and sovereignty.

   The Gulf region was the launching pad for the last major U.S.-led
   offensive against Baghdad -- the 1991 Gulf War that liberated Kuwait
   from Iraq's seven-month occupation. Iraq has been under crippling U.N.
   sanctions ever since.

   Unlike that conflict, Arab governments have this time publicly
   rejected any military action against Iraq, saying it would destabilize
   the region and increase the suffering of ordinary Iraqis.

   But from Oman to Kuwait, ordinary Gulf Arabs focused their criticism
   over the threatened U.S. strikes on Bush.

   "It's true we don't like Saddam, the whole world doesn't like him, but
   how haughty and conceited can Bush be by threatening Iraq," asked
   38-year-old Nasser Ali al-Suleiman, a Saudi civil servant.

   "The United States is making people hang onto Saddam, not because they
   care about him but because they hate its boundless arrogance. Take
   Saddam away but leave Iraq alone," he added.

   Hussein al-Ahmad, a 48-year-old Saudi businessman, told Reuters in
   Riyadh that although the presence of someone as "idiotic, reckless and
   selfish" as Saddam jeopardized the whole region, Bush's plans to get
   rid of him were also self-serving.

   "Everybody knows that George W. Bush holds a personal grudge against
   Saddam Hussein and wants to take revenge," he explained. "Both men
   don't care about the people of this region, and it is the people will
   be the first to suffer in any conflict."

   DON'T MESS WITH IRAQ, GULF ARABS SAY

   Saudi Arabia hosts about 5,000 U.S. troops, a contentious issue in
   this conservative kingdom that was the theater for U.S. strikes
   against Iraq during the Gulf War.

   The kingdom has said it will not allow Washington to use its soil to
   conduct similar military operations this time, heightening speculation
   that bases in neighboring Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar will be used
   instead.

   If that happens, the governments in both Gulf states are likely to
   face stiff opposition from their people who said they believe the
   United States had no right to attack Iraq.

   "Toppling the regime in Iraq should only be done by the people of Iraq
   and not external powers," said retired Kuwaiti headmaster Falah. "The
   United States is not the ruler of the world and anyway, Saddam only
   acts when the U.S. asks him to."

   Like Falah, many Arabs believe Saddam, whom Washington has placed in
   its "axis of evil," is in power because the United States wants to
   keep him as a convenient excuse to periodically interfere in the
   region.

   And as Qatar's Asharq newspaper said Sunday, U.S. talk that Saddam was
   a threat to a region did not convince many.

   "Striking Iraq on the pretext that it jeopardizes stability in the
   Gulf does not wash," the newspaper's editorial said. "No one is buying
   this any more."

   Articles From Reuters