The People's Blog - The Lion roars no more

Thursday December 18, 2003 CET by Comrade Medvedsilnyn

Sunday the 14th was a black day for anti-imperialist, anti-American, anti-lackey, anti-lapdog and all other progressive and constructive democratic forces of the world. The lion of the east roars no more. Saddam Hussein - the bold challenger of Western supremacy, a symbol of hope to millions of Arabs, and to their friends all over the world - has been caught. He has been paraded before the cameras of the world press, drugged and humiliated, as the American axis of weasels - Bush, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz - hiss in pleasure. Their puppet masters from you-know-where have planned this well.

President Saddam Hussein was no Mother Theresa. He was often excessively brutal against the communist opposition, which was understandably skeptical of his loyalty to international communism, and he even cooperated with the Americans for a period in the 1980's. You will never call me a Saddam apologist. But the smear campaign against this modern day Saladin is ridiculous. Look at the world he lived in. Look at the neighbours the Iraqi people had to deal with. To the east, Zionist imperialists and Saudis corrupted by American wealth. To the west, Shia fanatics and their mad ayatollahs. [*] Religious extremism everywhere. Even Saddam eventually saw it necessary to appease the powerful Iraqi religious establishment, and I believe that was a mistake. But put yourself in his place. Can you honestly say that you would have done any better? I doubt it.

Only one person stood to gain from Sunday's media circus, and that was George W. Bush. A man who, unlike Saddam, was not elected by his own people, but appointed by his father's friends in the Supreme Court. There may have been some irregularities in recent Iraqi elections, but at least Saddam had a majority of the people behind him. That's more than Bush can say, and I wonder if we can't detect a thick layer of envy in the increasingly hysterical communiques from the White House leading up to Saddam's capture.

Media reactions in Norway have been thoroughly hypocritical. NRK's Sharon apologist Odd Karsten Tveit described the disappointment Palestinians felt with Saddam's capture without even mentioning the vast sums of money Saddam has donated to Palestinian charities and families of victims of Israeli terrorism. TV2's Fredrik Græsvig, the reporter who after April 9 was forced to admit that at least Saddam knew how to preserve law and order, and didn't send orphans out on the streets to starve like the Americans did, dismissed the massive pro-Saddam protests in cities like Tikrit and Fallujah as a "mixed" reaction. Mixed indeed! Except for a small pro-American protest in Baghdad last week, carefully "guarded" by American helicopters, most patriotic Iraqis obviously see this as a huge insult to their honor and sovereignity. I hear there's been wild shooting all over Iraq for days. This pot is about to boil over, and the Americans have only themselves to blame.

And why haven't more people pointed out the utterly disgraceful way Saddam has been treated by the Americans? Whatever anyone's personal feelings about President Saddam, he is a legitimate head of state. How would George W. Bush feel about being drugged and nearly blown to bits by a group of heavily armed rednecks, then prodded and tested like a cow for all the world to see? Show the poor old man some mercy! And what happened to the Geneva convention ban against distributing humiliating footage of prisoners of war? Conveniently "forgotten", like the houndreds of innocent civilians in KZ Guantanamo? Remind me, who's the "rogue state" again?

The timing is also suspicious. The third part of the American propaganda flick Lord of the Rings premiers this week. Most likely Saddam's been held for months, (since when did a DNA test take hours?), and intentionally released now to increase the psychological effect. With the "arrest" of Saddam fresh in mind as audiences watch this racist allegory of Middle East affairs, the association between "evil" and Saddam Hussein will be complete and unerasable.

Now that part 1 of this well-directed TV show has aired to storming applause, we can hardly expect any less from part 2, the "trial" and summary execution of Saddam Hussein. Expect a carefully picked jury made up of Iraqis with some personal grudge again Saddam. And with the Iraq war finished in the eyes of the American public, expect an America even more bellicose than ever. The question now is who's next. Which "rogue" state standing in the way of American oil interests will be next? Norway, perhaps? I wouldn't be surprised.

([*] Update: Some readers claim that I have mixed up east and west here. I won't even honor that accusation with a reply. This is just another example of the pro-American thought police in action. Take one step away from common wisdom and suddenly there are lots of "factual errors" in your piece. It's one of their favourite tactics.)

Comrade Arkadovitch | 2003-12-19 09:47 | Link

Yet again, another excellent article by Comrade Medvedsilnyn.

While I disagree with the Lord of the Rings allegory, I certainly agree that this is a gross violation of Saddams human rights.

Furthermore, it is so obvious that Saddam is a prisoner of war. Even the nazis treated higher ranking officers captured during WWII better.

And, the americans continually accuse Saddam of his gassing of kurds and so forth. He was quelching a rebellion for crying out loud! Last I saw, america was quite fond of using gas to disperse demonstrations too. And look at the current russian administration, who uses gas to kill both freedom fighters and civilians in THEATERS!

Brutus | 2003-12-20 05:56 | Link

Yes, and now new in the news; PETA honorably notified us of mommies being killers, animal killers. I fully expect the admin's goons to start shooting mommies at WalMarts and local grocery stores just to gain a boost in popularity among PETA voters.

peshmarga | 2004-08-10 14:09 | Link

You people are the stupidest most naive morons to have graced this planet. Sadam the lion of the east you silly wankers. And the kurd rebelion whioch sadam put down was an maoist rebelion.... who's side are you on!!!!