DOHA, Qatar - A few weeks ago, the secretary general of the 22-member Arab League, Amr Moussa, declared that war with Iraq "will open the gates of Hell in the Middle East." But the reality is that some Arab nations are cooperating with preparations for a U.S. military campaign, while others remain on the sidelines.

Interviews with officials and observers from Qatar, Jordan and Saudi Arabia reveal a common basis for Arab calculations. It boils down to a wish to maintain good relations with Washington, even at the expense of criticism and possible unrest within their borders.

President Bush's address to the United Nations this month, seeking support from the Security Council for any action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, drew support from some Arab leaders who said they could not support a unilateral U.S. strike.

Bush will not be able to recruit Arab states into a coalition against Hussein as his father did in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when Arab leaders supplied the alliance with soldiers, bases and cash. But this time, the Arabs are bending to the will of U.S. superpower dominance.

Jordan's foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, said in an interview in Washington that despite strong misgivings about war, "Jordan has a strategic, political and economic relationship with the United States, and certainly, Jordan will not jeopardize this relationship." That is a contrast from a decade ago, when King Hussein came out against international intervention after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

In Qatar, a wealthy sheikdom in the Persian Gulf, the foreign minister, Hamad Bin Jasim al-Thani, recently signaled his country's priorities: "We always consider requests from our friends. We consider the United States our ally."

A wild card for all the Arab states is what Israel would do in the event of war. In 1991, the Israelis refrained from retaliating when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel. But this time, Israeli military and political leaders say they will not be restrained if attacked. If Israel joined the United States in a U.S. military campaign against Iraq, it could provoke a harsh reaction in the Arab world.

For now, the evidence of key Arab states' support for the United States is not found so much in public statements as in events on the ground. Arms and equipment are pouring into Kuwait, where the United States maintains an Army headquarters post - a forward base to supply three battalions with tanks, armored vehicles, assault helicopters and other equipment.

Troops from Britain, the Bush administration's prime partner in the campaign to oust Hussein, are holding maneuvers in Oman, where the United States is building a new airfield. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet and its two carrier-led battle groups, and has beefed up security at the base for fear of a backlash against a U.S. assault on Iraq.

Ten days ago, Saudi Arabia reversed itself and said it would permit military installations there to be used in a war endorsed by the United Nations. Jordan has taken no such public stand, but Western diplomats in Amman, the capital, say there is an "understanding" that Jordan will permit the Americans to use its territory for "search and rescue missions" to support U.S. troops inside Iraq.

Influential Egypt and Syria have chosen evasion as the best course, speaking only of their desire for U.N. decision-making. Cairo and Damascus have steered the debate away from the question of U.S. plans to overthrow Hussein to the issue of getting arms inspectors into Iraq.

Qatar has established a no-holds-barred alliance with the United States, which maintains the large Al Udeid Air Base in the south of the country. Transport planes, usually escorted by fighter jets, land at the base almost daily. The United States began using the base in the late 1990s, and it has undergone substantial enlargement. A hangar can house 40 planes, and bunkered shelters for jets line its 15,000-foot runway, the longest in the Persian Gulf.

Although Qatari officials say they have received no request for use of the base against Iraq, the U.S. Central Command will move command and control facilities from Florida to Qatar in November. The move is officially billed as a biennial exercise, but equipment and personnel will remain afterward, according to a U.S. official. There appears to be no doubt here that Qatar will be used as a launching pad if the United States attacks Iraq.

Qatar, a wealthy oil and natural gas emirate jutting from the Arabian Peninsula into the Gulf, would seem an unlikely U.S. ally in at least one way. Qataris belong to the Wahhabi sect of Islam, the same as Osama bin Laden and many Saudis. Yet, Wahhabism here is a relaxed variety. Women can work and drive, alcohol is served in hotels, and foreigners seem genuinely welcome.