A REGIME regarded by every sane person as the worst the Arabs have seen in contemporary history has collapsed with relatively few casualties and limited material damage.

The Baathist criminals who killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, including some by chemical weapons, over a quarter of a century, are either dead or will soon be captured and tried. For the first time since 1958 Iraq has a chance to dream of something other than bloody dictatorship.

Logically, Arabs should be jubilant. But some of the Western media tell us that they are not. Are Arabs masochists? The answer is no.

Arabs can be divided into three groups with regard to the war to liberate Iraq.

The first consists of Arab regimes, most of them despotic, who secretly wished to see the end of Saddam Hussein while praying that they would escape a similar fate.

The second consists of the Arab masses who, as yesterday's scenes of jubilation showed in Baghdad, are happy to see at least one of their oppressors kicked into the dustbin of history.

The so-called "Arab street" did not explode in countries outside Iraq, thus disappointing the don't-touch-Hussein lobby in the West. All in all, 17 demonstrations were held in four Arab countries. The largest, organised by the Syrian Government in Damascus, attracted just 12,000 people.

Then we have the long-distance heroes, corrupt and confused elites who, tortured by what is left of their numbed consciences, still hope that someone else's sacrifices will somehow redeem them. These are not Iraqis. They are people far from the scene of the conflict who urged the Iraqis to die in large numbers so that they could compose poems in their praise or pen incendiary columns inciting them to martyrdom. They dreamed of a second Vietnam or, failing that, at least a Stalingrad in Baghdad.

Much of the Arab media went hysterical about imaginary battles in which resisting Iraqis supposedly inflicted massive losses on "the invaders". They forecast a war that would last "for years", if not "until the end of time".

Al-Ahram, the Egyptian Government weekly, promised that "the heroic Iraqis, ready to fight to the last of their blood", would turn their country into "a vast graveyard for America's imperial dreams".

Many Arab newspapers imported their illusions from the West. Throughout the war, the Saudi, Egyptian and Lebanese press syndicated hundreds of articles from British and French anti-war newspapers. (The Saudi Arab News, for example, ran up to 10 articles from The Independent each day.)

The headlines screamed "Americans slaughter civilians" and "Thousands of Iraqis prepare for suicide missions". None of that happened. The Iraqis proved to be wiser than some of their Arab brethren had assumed.

The Iraqi army, which suffered from Hussein's savagery as much as other Iraqi institutions, decided not to fight from the start. Its units did not become involved in a single engagement, above company level, against the coalition forces.

Iraq's elite 4th Army Corps, based in the southeast, for example, evaporated. Had the Iraqi army and people wanted to fight, coalition tanks would not have reached the gates of Baghdad in two weeks.

The first Gulf War, for the liberation of Kuwait, lasted six weeks – including only 100 hours of ground fighting – and indicated the unwillingness of the Iraqi army to fight for the despot. (By comparison, the war to liberate Kosovo from Serbian terror lasted 11 weeks, and the war to liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban took nine weeks.)

When it became clear that the army was intelligent enough not to fight in defence of its oppressor, the long-distance heroes began urging civilians to go and get killed in large numbers in the forlorn hope of keeping Hussein in power.

The fugitive terrorist Osama bin Laden, or whoever pretends to be him, issued a statement calling on Iraqis to commit suicide, presumably so that he could have a chuckle in his grotto. The sheikh of al-Azhar seminary in Cairo, and Hussein Fadlallah, the Hezbollah spiritual chief in Lebanon, issued fatwas for jihad which they mistakenly take to mean holy war, and then went to bed, leaving the fight to Iraqi "candidates for martyrdom". The Iraqi people ignored them.

The Iraqis did not wish to suffer the fate of the Palestinians, that is to say, to die in large numbers for decades so that other Arabs, safe in their homes, would feel good about themselves. The Iraqis know that had the Palestinians not listened to their Arab brethren, they would have had a state in 1947, as decided by the UN Security Council. The Iraqis know that each time the Palestinians became heroic to please other Arabs they lost even more.

These days the Arab media is full of articles about how the Arabs feel humiliated by what has happened in Iraq, how they are frustrated, how they hate the US for having liberated the people of Iraq from their oppressor, and how they hope that the Europeans, presumably led by Jacques Chirac, will ride to the rescue to preserve a little bit of Hussein's legacy with the help of the UN.

Thank god the peoples of Iraq, not deceived by Arab hyperbole, are ignoring such nonsense.

Are the long-distance heroes humiliated? If they are, so what? They should jump in a river. Iraq is free and, despite its legitimate concerns about the future, cautiously happy.

Amir Taheri, an Iranian, is the author of The Cauldron – The Middle East Behind the Headlines. This article first appeared in British newspaper The Times.

In the center of this rural village near the border with Iran, an American colonel was talking with three sheiks.

"Would you like us to point out the bad people to you?" one of the sheiks asked.

"Yes, point them out and we'll take care of them," the colonel said, his arms pinned to his side by a crowd of men and boys curious to hear their liberator speak.

"Of course," the sheik said, "we can point them out to you, and then we can take care of them ourselves."

"No, just go about your business," the colonel said.

The marines took no prisoners here today, and there are probably few arrests to come. Though the Americans have promised to hunt down the Baath Party officials who have ruled here for 35 years and prosecute them, it is nearly impossible to do so.

After all, the local townsmen whisper, many families had Baath Party informants, and every neighborhood had a member of the party. The connection proved important for employment, promotions and the well-being of their children.

Moreover, the motives of those offering to help the American military are suspect.

"Do not trust the shieks," said Habib Hadi, a petroleum engineer who speaks English and was drinking tea at the market. "They want power. It is better to believe that the soldiers and party members have gone. How do Americans say — sleeping dogs?"

In this conservative Shiite Muslim village, folk wisdom says, allegiances flow in the order of Allah, family, village, clan and tribe. Relations are a complex stew. An enemy one day may be a friend the next. A rival becomes a brother-in-law. The settling of scores will be done by the men of this village, not the men of America or Britain.

According to the Moroccan journalist Anas Bouslamti, who has studied the Middle East for 15 years and was in Kumait today, a family could not eat without some connection to the government, and all but the most destitute households were tethered to it in some way.

"In times like these, when the power is collapsing, the people shift to the winning side," Mr. Bouslamti said. "When the power falls, the people say they had nothing to do with it. They saw nothing. They are innocents. The same thing happened with the Nazis, the Communists and the Taliban."

This evening, black plumes of smoke billowed from the center of the nearby city of Amara and loud explosions rumbled across the desert. The Americans had pulled back to base camps or were bivouacked on the outskirts of the city on the Tigris. The war for internal power is on.

The United States military is not policing the local streets, fearing that it would appear to be an occupying force.

"Our main function here is to wrest control of the country from Saddam," said Brig. Gen. Rich Natonski, commanding officer of Task Force Tawara. "Once we accomplish that, then the work of rebuilding this country can begin."

In the meantime a picture is starting to emerge of life in the Hussein era. The local men say a man will humiliate himself or inform on his neighbor in the face of terror and torture. How else could more than 100 men in this village of 3,000 have gone missing?

"My brother, he just disappeared one night in the hands of the secret police," said Ahmed al-Eidi, a schoolteacher. "They never gave me his body."

The brother of Mr. Hadi, the engineer, was hanged in public, accused of sedition. Mr. Hadi himself spent a month in prison, where he said he was tortured. He described the cell as a squalid room without windows or ventilation. The guards were hardened men who resented even giving him a glass of water. They administered beatings to the bottoms of his feet.

"I did nothing, I tell you that, believe me," Mr. Hadi said. "Somebody accused me of saying bad things about Saddam. I did not."

The reception for the Americans today was lukewarm. These are conservative Muslims. They complained that soldiers had distributed pictures of women with their heads bared. They asked the colonel to tell his soldiers not to touch or speak to their women at the checkpoints.

Times are hard. The value of the Iraqi dinar has fallen since the beginning of the war. Power is out all along the countryside. The Iraqis thank the Americans for bringing freedom, they desire their help, but they are beginning to ask how long the Americans will stay.

"I think 770 days will be enough," said Ali Shahar, an elementary school principal. "Two years. Rumsfeld promised two years."

This evening, a man's daughter was shot in the back of the head by misdirected American fire. The father wanted an assurance. "Promise me this will not be an occupation by the Americans," he said

* U.S. forces battle through central Baghdad streets,
widening their control of the city; U.S. says Saddam's fate
unknown after air raid
* Bush, Blair endorse "vital" postwar role for the U.N;
Chirac says up to U.N. alone to handle reconstruction
* Cameraman from Reuters and another from Spain's Tele 5
killed during U.S. tank fire on Baghdad hotel; al-Jazeera
cameraman killed after U.S. air raid on capital
* Two U.S. airmen listed as missing after their F-15E
warplane went down on Sunday
* U.N. says expects little oil to flow out of Iraq in the
foreseeable future and many goods ordered previously by Baghdad
do not cover emergency war needs

QUOTES
Under-secretary in charge of U.N. oil-for-food program for
Iraq: "There is no way for us to deliver during the 45-day
period everything which may be available in the pipeline to meet
the emergency need of the people of Iraq."
Bush on prisoners of war: "We will work to secure their
freedom, and we pray for their speedy and safe return."
Amnesty International on the hotel where two journalists
were killed: "Unless the U.S. can demonstrate that the Palestine
Hotel had been used for military purposes, it was a civilian
object protected under international humanitarian law that
should not have been attacked."
Iraq's information minister al-Sahaf on U.S. forces inside
Baghdad: "They are going to surrender or be burned in their
tanks."

EVENTS (TIMES IN GMT)

Wednesday -
* French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin meets
counterparts from western Mediterranean, north Africa
* Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Muhammad Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah
visits Moscow

Friday/Saturday -
* Putin, Chirac, Schroeder to meet in St Petersburg

CASUALTIES
* U.S. - 96 dead, 10 missing
* Britain - 30 dead
* Iraqi military - More than 2,320, according to U.S.
military. Iraq has given no figures for its military losses
* Iraqi civilians (Iraqi estimates as of April 3) - 1,252
killed, 5,103 injured

MILITARY ACTION
BAGHDAD: U.S. warplanes, tanks, artillery pound central
Baghdad, target government offices; U.S. troops push into
capital from several directions
U.S. Marines push into Baghdad from east, say have seized
Rashid military airfield, which Iraqi forces had abandoned
U.S. military says does not know if air raid on Mansur
district of western Baghdad has killed Saddam.
CENTRAL IRAQ: U.S. forces advance to northwestern edge of
city of Hilla, use planes, tanks, artillery to attack Iraqis
firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles. Fighting
sporadic, but intense at times, lasts most of the day.
NORTHERN IRAQ: U.S. special forces prevent Iraqi troops
moving south towards Tikrit.
U.S. says has seen Iraqi commanders leave their posts or
express willingness to stop fighting, but no defections from
ruling Baath party.

* U.S. military bombed a target where Saddam may have been
inside, U.S. official says
* U.S. forces storm the heart of Baghdad, seizing two Saddam
palace complexes; U.S. troops, tanks still occupying one palace
* Gunfire, blasts heard from Baghdad palace held by U.S.
* Colin Powell says Washington will send a team to Iraq this
week to assess the needs for a future interim authority
* U.S. officers say may have found banned chemical weapons
* Britain says thinks it has found body of "Chemical Ali"
* Iraqi television shows Saddam meeting with top aides

QUOTES
Rumsfeld: "We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical
Ali has come to an end."
Colin Powell: "There will be a role for the United Nations
as a partner in this process."
UK soldier on mood in Basra towards troops: "This is more
than we could have hoped for. We took part in the raid yesterday
and today it's a completely different city."

EVENTS (TIMES IN GMT)
Tuesday -
* Bush, Blair end two-day summit, hold news conference
* French Foreign Minister Villepin meets Kuwaiti Foreign
Minister in Paris

Friday
* Germany's Schroeder meets Russia's Putin

CASUALTIES
* U.S. - 91 dead, 14 missing
* Britain - 30 dead
* Iraqi military - More than 2,320, according to U.S.
military. Iraq has given no figures for its military losses
* Iraqi civilians (Iraqi estimates) - 1,252 killed, 5,103
injured

MILITARY ACTION
BAGHDAD: U.S. forces mount raid into the heart of Baghdad
and enter two presidential palace complexes. U.S. officer says
65 tanks and 40 Bradley fighting vehicles take part.
U.S. forces near the Information Ministry and central Rashid
Hotel but do not take them. Iraqi forces block many Tigris
bridges, defend key ministries with rocket-propelled grenades.
U.S. military describes assault as show of force, rather
than final attack, but troops remain in city after nightfall.
Iraqi, U.S. troops exchange fire in a "battle zone" in
central Baghdad that includes a residential district. Two U.S.
soldiers and two journalists killed, 15 injured and six missing
in Iraqi attack on communications centre south of Baghdad.
Two U.S. Marines killed, many injured in fighting to secure
two bridges over a river on the edge of Baghdad, U.S. military
says. Marines say both bridges badly damaged in fighting but
they have crossed the river using one of the bridges and a new
crossing laid by military bridge-laying machines. Heavy bombing
of Baghdad resumes.

SOUTHERN IRAQ: British paratroopers guarded by tanks and
helicopter gunships walk unopposed into the centre of Iraq's
second city, Basra
British forces still expect some resistance from a "hard
core" of Ba'ath Party members

NORTHERN IRAQ: Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, working with U.S.
forces, advance south towards Iraq's third largest city Mosul,
capturing the small town of Faida on the way.

* U.S. forces tighten grip around Baghdad as U.S. says it
has cut most approaches to the capital; U.S. general says troops
may still face tough Baghdad fight
* Six explosions hit southern outskirts of Baghdad and
planes heard overhead, Reuters witness says
* Britain says three British soldiers killed in Basra
* U.S. plane bombs convoy of U.S. special forces, Kurdish
fighters, killing 18 Kurds and wounding more than 45, including
brother of Kurdish leader Barzani
* Iraqi opposition says sends fighters to Nassiriya to join
U.S.-led campaign; Opposition leader sees two-year stay for U.S.
military

QUOTES
Britain's Major General Peter Wall on the battle for Basra:
"It's been a very good day but I would just caution against
excessive optimism. A relatively small number of determined
people in a large city can still give us difficulty."
U.S. General Peter Pace on fight for Baghdad: "There is no
doubt that it is still possible that we will have some
significant combat ahead of us."
Exiled Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi on length of
post-war U.S. administration: "I'm not prepared to give a time
frame. But we expect to have a constitution ratified within two
years."

EVENTS (TIMES IN GMT)
Monday -
* Bush, Blair meet over dinner at start of two-day summit
south of Belfast, Northern Ireland
* U.N. Security Council holds meeting on Iraq (1500)
* Foreign ministers of six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council
hold emergency meeting in Kuwait to discuss Iraq war

Tuesday -
* Bush, Blair end two-day summit, hold news conference

CASUALTIES
* U.S. - Pentagon lists 81 dead, 8 missing
* Britain - 30 dead
* Iraqi military - U.S. says 320 Iraqi soldiers were killed
in battle for Baghdad airport, and about 2,000 killed since U.S.
forces started attacking the outskirts of Baghdad. Iraq has
given no figures for its military losses in war
* Iraqi civilians (Iraqi estimates) - 1,252 killed, 5,103
injured

MILITARY ACTION
BAGHDAD: Artillery exchanges, mortar fire heard in central
Baghdad; explosions hit east and southwest outskirts. Iraq says
it fires five missiles at U.S.-led forces on outskirts.
U.S. Marines battle for control of road bridge over the
Tigris. U.S. says its forces control almost all access to the
capital and 2,000 Iraqi fighters have been killed since attack
on outskirts began.
CENTRAL IRAQ: U.S. troops push into the centre of Kerbala
after battles with Iraqi paramilitaries threatening U.S. supply
lines.
SOUTHERN IRAQ: British forces launch second thrust into
Basra.
NORTHERN IRAQ: U.S. plane bombs convoy of U.S. special
forces and Kurdish fighters, killing up to 18 Kurds and wounding
the brother of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani.
In the north, Kurdish fighters say they have captured the
town of Ain Sifni, northeast of Iraq's third city Mosul.

April 3 - Shi'ite Muslim cleric asking his millions of followers to
remain neutral in any fighting has undermined Baghdad's hopes
of unleashing "holy war" to expel U.S. and British invaders,
experts believe.
According to experts on Shi'ite Islam, word from Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was also likely to ease tensions
around Iraq's holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala, scenes of tough
fighting earlier in the week, and to limit the risk of clashes
between ordinary believers and U.S.-led soldiers.
"Neither the occupying army nor the local officials, in the
presence of such an ayatollah, have authority more legitimate
than his," said Hamid Dabashi, a professor at Columbia
University and an expert on the Shi'ites and their world.
Such "guidance" to followers should soothe fears of
religiously motivated attacks on U.S.-led troops, Dabashi said.
However, he said the call may be short-lived.
Murtadha al-Kashmiri, a London representative of Sistani,
said the cleric had asked followers not to take sides in the
fighting. He denied earlier reports he had issued a fatwa, or
formal religious edict.
"According to the information we received, there is no
fatwa referring to Americans or Iraq, but he has asked people
to remain neutral and not get involved," Kashmiri said.
Under Shi'ite religious law, the Ayatollah's authority
outranks that of Iraq's secular authorities, including
President Saddam Hussein, as well as that of any invading
general or army commander.
U.S. officers, who have given orders to avoid damage to
holy sites for fear of inflaming anti-Western sentiment among
Iraq's persecuted Shi'ite majority, welcomed the ayatollah's
position.

'SIGNIFICANT TURNING POINT'
"We believe this is a very significant turning point and
another indicator that the Iraqi regime is approaching its
end," Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters in Qatar.
But Dabashi said the call could be a tactic, or even a
ruse, to protect the sacred sites and the true believers from
harm at the hands of the invading armies. Religious law allows
Sistani to resort to "taqiyah," or dissembling for the good of
the faith, to achieve those goals.
A fatwa from Sistani, issued earlier while he was under the
control of Iraqi government agents, directed the people to
resist efforts to topple Saddam.
Iraq's Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said
that decree still stood. "As Muslims, their fatwa is to resist
the American mercenary forces -- they are evil -- and to
consider them invaders who should be resisted," he told
al-Jazeera television.
Earlier on Thursday, the Shi'ite Al Khoei foundation in
London said Sistani had issued a formal fatwa, directing
believers to cooperate with the American-led forces. It was not
possible to contact Sistani himself, who has until recently
lived under house arrest on Saddam's orders.
Ayatollah Sistani, whose followers pay him religious taxes
and look to him for spiritual and practical guidance, is the
supreme religious authority at the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya
theological school in Najaf.
He is also responsible for the shrine of Imam Ali, the
son-in-law of the Prophet and the first leader of the Shi'ite
community -- a site sacred to Shi'ites around the world,
including more than 60 million believers in neighboring Iran.
Iraq is ruled by the pan-Arab Baath Party, which has
traditionally espoused secular nationalist ideology, but at
times of crisis Saddam -- himself a Sunni Muslim -- has invoked
religious faith to bolster his policies.
A Reuters correspondent in Najaf, about 100 miles (160 km)
south of Baghdad, said U.S. troops moved into the center of the
city, alarming some residents near the Ali shrine.
CNN footage showed soldiers trying to calm the crowd, who
apparently feared they were planning to seize the shrine. The
scene ended peacefully, as the U.S. troops gently pulled back,
and a cleric in a white turban tried to reassure the people.
U.S. military sources told Reuters members of the 101st
Airborne had been in talks with Sistani about how to govern
Najaf in the absence of pro-Saddam forces. "I think he realized
we really are here to help Iraqi people," said one source.