Even sympathetic Arabs doubted Saddam’s motives and redistribution promises

Evidence

But even among those who respond emotionally to such appeals, there are doubts. Is he really working for the greater Arab or Muslim cause or just for his own personal aggrandizement? Will he really bring about a redistribution of the wealth of the old regimes, or merely transfer it to his own control, and in the meantime deprive great numbers of young men from Jordan and Egypt and elsewhere of the employment opportunities that the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia offered? — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1703

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the sacrifice-of-rulers theme: subjects skeptically weigh whether a leader’s avowed causes mask personal enrichment.