Le Monde: "La 'révolte' remonte, selon lui, à la deuxième Intifada de septembre 2000 en Palestine, mais la guerre en Irak aurait ouvert les yeux de tous les Egyptiens : les Etats-Unis n'aiment le monde arabe que divisé, morcelé, 'agenouillé'."

Noam Chomsky: "There are two ways for Washington to respond to the threats engendered by its actions and startling proclamations. One way is to try to alleviate the threats by paying some attention to legitimate grievances, and by agreeing to become a civilised member of a world community, with some respect for world order and its institutions. The other way is to construct even more awesome engines of destruction and domination, so that any perceived challenge, however remote, can be crushed -- provoking new and greater challenges. That way poses serious dangers to the people of the US and the world, and may, very possibly, lead to extinction of the species -- not an idle speculation."

Arab News: "The Bush administration’s plans for a US military administration which will gradually incorporate Iraqi figures and in time become wholly Iraqi and finally sovereign borders on the insane. Nothing could be more calculated to produce a tidal wave of anti-American bitterness and hatred across the Middle East, which would be like nothing the US has ever seen. The present antipathy toward it over its support for Israel will be chicken-feed in comparison."

Edward Said: "My strong opinion, though I don't have any proof in the classical sense of the word, is that they want to change the entire Middle East and the Arab world, perhaps terminate some countries, destroy the so-called terrorist groups they dislike and install regimes friendly to the United States. I think this is a dream that has very little basis in reality. The knowledge they have of the Middle East, to judge from the people who advise them, is to say the least out of date and widely speculative."

Independent: "That seemed to be what President Bush wanted when, in mid-February, he called on the Iraqi people to overthrow the regime. But as the rebellion spread to other Shia-majority cities - Karbala, Najaf and Kufa - the Americans seemingly panicked... They had imagined a palace coup in Baghdad, not a grassroots popular revolt that might lead to the sectarian dismemberment of Iraq and who knows what else. Whether Washington gave a green light to President Saddam or not - and there are furious ideologically driven debates on this point - the Republican Guard was soon on its way south and left free to do its worst by American warplanes circling overhead to enforce the new no-fly zone beneath the 32nd parallel."

Saul Landau: "In Tariq Aziz's office, now obliterated, the Deputy Prime Minister resisted former Senator Jim Abourezk and Congressman Nick Rahall's persuasive arguments to allow the UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq. "Without guarantees that he [Bush] will not attack, why should we concede?" he asked."