Arab world debate: "liberate" or "build"?
'"The basic question," says Lebanese columnist Abdul Karim Aboul-Nasr, "is whether Iraq should give priority to liberation or to building Iraq on all levels." The "democrats" favour the second course. For them, it was the lack of democracy which brought the Arabs to their present abysmal condition; and for that they blame the nationalists, holders of power since independence, as much as the Americans. "'National liberation' regimes," says Reda Helal, deputy editor of Cairo's al-Ahram, "have trampled the freedoms of their peoples for so long under the pretext of ending colonialism that they ultimately helped colonialism return under the pretext of liberating their peoples."'

Arab world debate: "liberate" or "build"?
'"The basic question," says Lebanese columnist Abdul Karim Aboul-Nasr, "is whether Iraq should give priority to liberation or to building Iraq on all levels." The "democrats" favour the second course. For them, it was the lack of democracy which brought the Arabs to their present abysmal condition; and for that they blame the nationalists, holders of power since independence, as much as the Americans. "'National liberation' regimes," says Reda Helal, deputy editor of Cairo's al-Ahram, "have trampled the freedoms of their peoples for so long under the pretext of ending colonialism that they ultimately helped colonialism return under the pretext of liberating their peoples."'