ARAB STREET, REDUX

ARAB STREET, REDUX: Reuters (yes, them again): Arabs Seethe as TV Brings Iraq Destruction Home :

“Did you see all those bombs falling on TV? All the poor people? And for what? America wants to subjugate the entire region for the sake of Israel. They want to bring the Arabs to their knees,” said 50-year-old Egyptian housewife Samia.

Some analysts say the widespread and sometimes violent anti-war protests, from Arab states in the Gulf to Morocco on the Atlantic, have the potential to undermine stability in a region described by one expert as a “cauldron of discontent.”

But most say the tough security services in Arab states should manage to rein in the fury and ensure the protests do not threaten government control.

In Egypt, the region’s most populous country with almost 70 million people, thousands of students staged anti-war rallies at universities on Saturday amid tight police security.

But unlike the past two days, there were no initial reports of violence or clashes with police.

In Damascus and Khartoum, police pushed back anti-war protesters trying to storm toward the U.S. embassies.

“Bush and Blair are war criminals,” and “Stop the war now!” chanted hundreds of demonstrators in the conservative Gulf Arab sultanate of Oman, where protests are rare.

“Bush is the new Hitler of this century. He won’t stop until he has control of all Arab lands,” one Omani student said.

Sounds like this could be San Francisco. And that Pat Buchanan sure gets around–what’s he doing posing as a 50-year-old Egyptian housewife?!

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.