The Arab world has a dangerous habit of consistently declaring victory in war, even after suffering devastating defeats. Many Arab students are still taught that Israel lost the 1973 Yom Kippur War, despite the fact Washington had to restrain Israel from marching on Cairo. Saddam Hussein declared victory when he survived the 1991 Gulf War, despite the fact that his army was devastated. Hizbullah declared victory last summer against Israel, even as Beirut lay in rubble.
Egyptian Khairi Abaza of the Center for Liberty in the Middle East has just published an excellent piece in the Lebanon Daily Star in which he flatly tells fellow Arabs that they “will not progress before they face the truth about their own history.”
Similarly, Arabs will only progress when more thinkers like Abaza find the courage to publish the truth.
