In yet another al-Reuters release of barely disguised Arab propaganda, stringer Firouz Sedarat would like us to know that “analysts” have determined that the “true image of the occupation” is humiliation, contempt for Islam, sadism, and racism: Bush’s Backing of Rumsfeld Shocks and Angers Arabs. The “analysts” all seem to be in places like Dubai and Algiers, which as we all know are centers of intellectual rigor.

“Bush’s praise for Rumsfeld will discredit the United States…and further damage its reputation, which is already at a historic low in the Arab world,” he added.

Analysts have said the damage from images seen worldwide of U.S. soldiers abusing naked Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison would be indelible, incalculable and a gift to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

What people saw, they said, was the true image of the occupation: humiliation of an occupied people, contempt for Islam, sadism and racism.

“After Mr. Bush’s decision to keep Rumsfeld, all their apologies seem like lip service,” Dubai-based political analyst Jawad al-Anani told Reuters. “Mr. Rumsfeld would have certainly lost his job if the prisoners were American.”

“The United States is spending so much money by setting up Alhurra television and Radio Sawa to improve its image in the Arab world…How can it reconcile that with keeping a man who has insulted every Arab through the abuses of Iraqi prisoners,” added Anani, a former Jordanian foreign minister.

University of Algiers professor Mahmoud Belhimeur agreed.

“I cannot believe the United States reacts the way an authoritarian regimes would. Bush should have done the honorable thing and fired Rumsfeld,” he said.