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Iraq's Impact on the Middle East: The Great Arab Schism
Can Kassem and Nasser Coexist?
- Abstract
IRAQ and Egypt celebrated the anniversaries of the coups which made them both military republics within eight days of one another. The Egyptians, only vaguely aware of what they are supposed to be celebrating, are by now broken to the routine; but the Iraqi republic is still something of a novelty, and Baghdad had never seen such a spectacle as was put on last July 14. There were carnival floats and clowns and unveiled girls with flowers in their hair and a pavement-shattering display of British and Soviet tanks. Banners celebrating the destruction of privilege and imperialism streamed by to the tune of such rousing revolutionary marches as “The British Grenadier.” The crowds were in uproarious good humor. Britons and Americans who might have been taken for a drag a year ago had they been available were grinned at and treated to “Bebsi-Cola.” General Kassem was cheered and lauded in poetry, song, and slogan as the strong man of the moment is always cheered and lauded in the Arabic- speaking Near East, without the cheers and flattery meaning very much or committing anyone very deeply.
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