The Arab guy on "Lost"

I have been watching the episodes of "Lost" in sequence.  At first, I was impressed that the Arab guy (named Sayid but for some reason called Sa`id by people on the show) was portrayed as a good person, until the second or third episode of the very first season when you discover that he was in fact a torturer for the Iraqi Republican Guard.  How many Arab guy you meet in the West had served in the Republican Guard?  Oh, of course: he walks everywhere with a picture of a veiled woman.