A kinder, gentler Saddam?!
The media has had a continuing fascination with Saddam Hussein. However, lately
it has been interested in Saddam, the man. It's <u>as though</u>
the media is trying to paint "The Butcher of Baghdad" as a warmer,
cuddly, actual human being. Some of these tidbits have been provided by
three soldiers, who had the "privilege" of guarding Saddam Hussein
for nine months. These soldiers made the talk show rounds after their interview
in GQ magazine hit the stands. The GIs are from a PA National Guard unit, who
were chosen by the FBI to guard the deposed dictator. This tour lasted for nine
months and was so secret that they could not even tell their families. The soldiers
are: Cpl. Jonathan "Paco" Reese, age 22; Specialist Sean O'Shea, then
19 and Spc. Jesse Dawson, age 25. Through them we've learned that Saddam prays
5x a day. Loves Doritos & Raisin Bran Crunch (please no endorsements).
Would like to make friends with G. W. Bush. Is conversant in English & often
offered the soldiers fatherly advice. Saddam also shared with his guards that
he felt like Jesus Christ in that his betrayal was from a man that he paid to
trust, like Judas. Also he apparently believes that he will be restored to power
& went so far as to invite these soldiers to visit him in his palaces. (That
last assertion is where the warm & fuzzy stops & the delusion begins.)
Through his daughter, Raghad, we have learned that Saddam has written his
forth novel, ""Get Out, Damned One." (No, it's not an autobiography.)
Raghad has not only written a glowing dedication to her father on the back cover
is out doing the publicity rounds in light of its imminent publication.
<p>I resent & detest ANY & ALL attempts to make this man sympathetic. I abhor anyone who tries to put a smiley face on this man post capture. Let's remember the crimes that he is charged with. (For all you Bush bashers, let's keep this straight. This is what his countryman have charged him with, not the the White House's agenda.)
<p>o The 1987-88 Anfal campaign, a depopulation plan in which
hundreds of thousands of Kurds were killed or expelled from northern Iraq.
o Mortar bombardment of Kirkuk. (No details available.)
o The events of 1991 in southern Iraq, referring to Saddam's suppression
of a Shiite uprising following the U.S.-led Gulf War in Kuwait.
o The massacre of Dujail, the 1982 execution of at least 50 Iraqis in
the Shiite town 50 miles north of Baghdad, in retaliation for a failed assassination
attempt against Saddam.
o Forced emigration of the Fayli Kurds, thousands of Shiite Kurds who
were pushed from northern Iraq into Iran.
o Halabja, a Kurdish town where a chemical weapons attack killed an estimated
5,000 people in 1988.
o The execution of 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe, a powerful Kurdish
clan to which the current Kurdistan Democratic Party leader, Massoud Barzani,
belongs.
o The 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which Iraqi forces occupied for seven
months until being expelled by a U.S.-led coalition during the 1991 Gulf War.
o Execution of prominent religious figures. (No details provided.)
o Execution of prominent political figures. (No details provided)
o Crimes against religious parties. (No details provided.)
o Crimes against political parties. (No details provided.)
o Crimes against secular parties. (No details provided.)
o The drying of the southern marshes. Saddam ordered new dams, canals
and dikes built to drain the Mesopotamian marshlands between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers following the 1991 Shiite uprising. Thousands of Shiites lived
and fished in the area that was reputed to contain the biblical Garden of Eden
but was turned into an arid salt bed.
<p> Not only has this man committed crimes against humanity but he perpetrated tremendous ecological damage. These lists of crimes do not even speak of the horrendous & brutal torture that Saddam commissioned and condoned. (I've seen some of the videotapes that Saddam retained & reviewed for his pleasure. They are permanently etched in my brain as the stuff of your worst nightmares.) Additionally he raised 2 murderous sons, more bloodthirsty than he. Girls were not permitted an education. Women were lower than animals under his regime. Saddam is right up there with Hitler. <p>LET US NOT FALL UNDER THE SPELL OF THE MEDIA that seems so desperate for a story that it has developed a chronic case of amnesia.