Monday, November 28, 2005
Metamorphosis
Throughout his reign of terror, Saddam Hussein labored mightily to convince everyone – the people of Iraq, neighboring countries, the world community and potential adversaries, both foreign and domestic – that he was the all-powerful, all-knowing ruler of Iraq.
Like Stalin, he wanted one and all to believe that he knew everything that happened, that his agents were everywhere, that nothing happened in Iraq without his knowledge and approval. Like Stalin, he made sure that people, sometimes whole families, disappeared without trace or reason often enough to convince everyone else that even thinking thoughts of which Saddam would not approve could get you “disappeared” to one of his prisons or mass graves.
And when things happened without his approval, an assassination attempt here, a little rebellion there, he became the merciless and all-powerful engine of vengeance, executing the entire families of those suspected of involvement, destroying the orchards and fields of entire villages suspected of being the homes of those suspected of being involved. Sometimes even destroying entire villages and killing all the inhabitants, using such means as poison gas and mass execution.
He embarked on a pattern of forced relocation according to ethnic or religious background. You lived where you were told you could live. You lived the way you were told you could live. And you lived in fear that someone, anyone, might denounce you as insufficiently reverent toward the all-knowing, all-powerful Saddam. Whether it was true or not made no difference. And so even if you followed all the rules, you lived in fear of Saddam.
Which was just what he wanted.
But watch now, as the trial of Saddam unfolds, and behold! A startling metamorphosis will occur. Aided and abetted by a virulently, unreasonably, and incredibly stupid anti-Bush press, Saddam will be transformed before your very eyes into a victim, a lovable and well-meaning benevolent dictator who was ignorant of the terrible goings-on around him. Who had no knowledge of the atrocities carried out in his name by evil underlings who deceived him and hid the awful truth from him.
The underlings, confronted by incontrovertible proof of their involvement in vast and incomprehensible atrocities (which will receive scant coverage from a world media busy with its search for another picture of some guy in US custody wearing underwear on his head) will claim they were just following orders. Saddam will of course deny ever having given the orders. And blame will be laid at the feet of a group of Saddamite functionaries now conveniently dead. These dead monsters will become the scapegoats, the evil ones who victimized both the Iraqi people and their beloved and benevolent leader.
Never mind the fact that the world knows well that any subordinate functionaries who sneezed without Saddam's OK died (or disappeared) years ago.
Just watch as the coverage unfolds. The media focus will not be where it should be, on the unspeakable horrors inflicted by the monstrous Saddam Hussein and his evil henchmen. It will be on Saddam, the victim. First victimized by those evil and deceitful henchmen, now victimized by the evil and deceitful US and its Iraqi puppets.
Someone call me if the mainstream media ever decides to actually report news again instead of churning out propaganda in support of its one-world socialist agenda. That is a metamorphosis I’d like to see.
Like Stalin, he wanted one and all to believe that he knew everything that happened, that his agents were everywhere, that nothing happened in Iraq without his knowledge and approval. Like Stalin, he made sure that people, sometimes whole families, disappeared without trace or reason often enough to convince everyone else that even thinking thoughts of which Saddam would not approve could get you “disappeared” to one of his prisons or mass graves.
And when things happened without his approval, an assassination attempt here, a little rebellion there, he became the merciless and all-powerful engine of vengeance, executing the entire families of those suspected of involvement, destroying the orchards and fields of entire villages suspected of being the homes of those suspected of being involved. Sometimes even destroying entire villages and killing all the inhabitants, using such means as poison gas and mass execution.
He embarked on a pattern of forced relocation according to ethnic or religious background. You lived where you were told you could live. You lived the way you were told you could live. And you lived in fear that someone, anyone, might denounce you as insufficiently reverent toward the all-knowing, all-powerful Saddam. Whether it was true or not made no difference. And so even if you followed all the rules, you lived in fear of Saddam.
Which was just what he wanted.
But watch now, as the trial of Saddam unfolds, and behold! A startling metamorphosis will occur. Aided and abetted by a virulently, unreasonably, and incredibly stupid anti-Bush press, Saddam will be transformed before your very eyes into a victim, a lovable and well-meaning benevolent dictator who was ignorant of the terrible goings-on around him. Who had no knowledge of the atrocities carried out in his name by evil underlings who deceived him and hid the awful truth from him.
The underlings, confronted by incontrovertible proof of their involvement in vast and incomprehensible atrocities (which will receive scant coverage from a world media busy with its search for another picture of some guy in US custody wearing underwear on his head) will claim they were just following orders. Saddam will of course deny ever having given the orders. And blame will be laid at the feet of a group of Saddamite functionaries now conveniently dead. These dead monsters will become the scapegoats, the evil ones who victimized both the Iraqi people and their beloved and benevolent leader.
Never mind the fact that the world knows well that any subordinate functionaries who sneezed without Saddam's OK died (or disappeared) years ago.
Just watch as the coverage unfolds. The media focus will not be where it should be, on the unspeakable horrors inflicted by the monstrous Saddam Hussein and his evil henchmen. It will be on Saddam, the victim. First victimized by those evil and deceitful henchmen, now victimized by the evil and deceitful US and its Iraqi puppets.
Someone call me if the mainstream media ever decides to actually report news again instead of churning out propaganda in support of its one-world socialist agenda. That is a metamorphosis I’d like to see.
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