The Arab World: The Fuse Grows Shorter

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In the early days of the war, Amman was unexpectedly quiet, in part because of the efficiency of the police, who have stationed patrols along major roads to prevent unrest. Since the people and government in Jordan share the same position on the war, the friction that gives rise to protest is also reduced. In addition, the country's relatively free press serves as a vent for popular fury. Nonetheless, in recent weeks, extremists have shot at or set fire to several Western targets in Amman, including the French Cultural Center, a branch of the British Bank of the Middle East and a parked car belonging to the U.S. military attache.

The attacks caused no injuries but helped persuade the State Department two weeks ago to ask all 5,000 Americans still in Jordan to leave and to draw down the U.S. embassy in Amman to a skeletal staff. That only elicited more vituperation from Jordanians, many of whom believe the move was unwarranted and calculated to tarnish the country's reputation.

The massive scale of the allied bombings of Iraq has stunned and outraged many. "We thought Americans were civilized," says Sheik Muhammad al-Faiz, a prosperous landowner who lives south of Amman. "But now we see that they are savages." The fact that Jordanians have died in the attacks has further inflamed emotions. As of last week, 31 Jordanian trucks, which Amman says were carrying oil, had been hit on the Amman-Baghdad highway, killing seven of the drivers and wounding ten. Jordan officially protested to the U.S., which replied that it had good information that Iraqi war materiel was being moved in convoys containing civilian oil trucks, making them legitimate targets.

Meanwhile, Iraq's missile strikes on Israel, while militarily insignificant, have proved a political bonanza for Saddam among the Arab masses. "It was incredible to see Tel Aviv in a panic," says Amman businessman Ahmed Abdul Khaleq. "This is the strength of Saddam. For once, we can hit the Israelis."

SAUDI ARABIA

Qualms Among The Protected

In Saudi Arabia, Saddam has no following to speak of. The Saudis remain unwavering in their disdain for him and in their opposition to his invasion of Kuwait. Still, some Saudis are privately beginning to question the conduct of the war, Washington's motives for waging it and the consequences for Riyadh's future relations with other Arab states.

Many Saudis, naively, were shocked to learn that the war will be neither fast nor painless. "Truly this war is worse than Saddam," says a religious ; teacher in the Eastern province, expressing a level of dissent rarely heard in his tightly wrapped society. "The Americans are testing their weapons on our Arab people," he says. "They promised this would be quick and it is not."

The shifting objectives of the U.S. have raised suspicions. Some Saudis complain that first the Americans said they would use military might only to defend Saudi Arabia; then that they would use force to push Saddam from Kuwait; now they are making it plain that by pursuing targets deep inside Iraq, they also mean to emasculate the Iraqi military. Says a Saudi journalist: "I think they want to leave the Arab countries as weak as they can for the sake of Israel."