Month: December 2003

Here’s the text. Analysis later.

The hero of Vanity Fair apparently calls Bush administration officials “fucking assholes and thugs.” The anti-Bush people keep getting classier and classier, don’t they?

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE: “I kind of feel the terrorists have won by making me write this, since it ought to be obvious to any idiot, but yes, I’m quite pleased that a monstrous mass murderer (though a former ally to Messrs. Reagan, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) will be brought to justice and will not be able to threaten anyone ever again. However, just as obviously, it does little to justify what remains a dishonest, self-destructive, hubristic adventure that continues to undermine our security and the stability of the region with each passing day, but there it is.” – Eric “quite pleased” Alterman, on his blog.

We will all have our own memories of yesterday. No, the war is not over. The Baathist terrorists will continue, although they must feel somewhat demoralized. The dead-enders have now reached a real dead-end. There will be time to think about the domestic ramifications of this – and what it might mean for Iraq’s transition to freedom. Just not so fast. For me, the moment I won’t forget was the sudden roar of excitement and jubilation from Iraqi journalists in the press conference room when Jerry Bremer gave the news. Salon describes it well:

The room erupted in cheers and shouts. Iraqi reporters in the room began yelling, crying, sobbing. A middle aged Iraqi man sitting near me wept while he frantically took notes. Other Iraqis called for Saddam’s death. A man sitting in the front row wailed with his head in his hands. The press conference paused briefly while the man calmed down.

It is not for us to understand fully what these people were put through. At a moment like this, when we can see fully and clearly the evil that existed for so long – evil that we in the past did our part to maintain – it is important simply to recall the dead and their loved ones. Think of every moment when some poor soul believed he was about to die, every moment spent in hellish prisons, every person tortured beyond imagining, every child dumped in a mass grave, every person of faith treated as an enemy of the state. To watch the perpetrator of this extraordinary evil brought low – into a rat-hole in the ground – is a privilege. It happens rarely. It is a moment when some kind of cosmic justice breaks through the clouds, and all the petty wrangling and mistakes and political jockeying fall away in the face of liberation from inescapable fear and terror and brutality. It was a day of joy. Nothing remains to be said right now. Joy.

(for thinly veiled disappointment at the capture of Saddam): “I can’t believe this. I’m crying here. I feel that we now don’t have a chance in this election.” – poster Carrie B. on Howard Dean’s campaign blog. Way to get your priorities straight, Carrie.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE II: “The same men who are going to carry on attacking the Americans will, of course, be making a secret holiday in their heart over the capture of Saddam. Why, they will argue, should they not rejoice at the end of their greatest oppressor while planning the humiliation of the occupying army which seized him?” – Robert Fisk, on form, in the Independent.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE III: “The thought of a 21-year-old losing his life while chasing what is, in the end, a complete stumblebum, is shattering. A soldier was killed in Iraq yesterday, so he certainly wasn’t looking for Saddam. The president, all his people and generals look around for something to grasp and hold high, look what we have done! and yesterday was their greatest day, they had captured a name known all over the world. By nightfall, they were finally silent, and the rain beat down on the new graves of the young.” – Jimmy Breslin, New York Newsday.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE IV: “I look forward to the day when sanctions mass murderer Clinton is pulled from a hole all burly faced and brought to justice – when Colin Powell is yanked from his hideaway for his role in the ‘highway of death’ massacre of 50,000 Iraqi soldiers as they exited from Kuwait or even for incinerating Panamanians in their shanty towns – and what about Bush, Cheney, Bremer and their democratic party accomplices who have been saying ‘me too!’ every step of the way? One thing good about the capture is that now it will end US and media speculation about whether capturing him will dampen the spirits of the Iraqi resistance fighters. It indeed could prove to be a double edged sword where now the recruitment into their ranks can go forward without the taint of being ‘Saddam loyalists.'” – Bob Witanek, Committee To End The Occupation of Iraq.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE V: “My wife, Shahin Cole, suggested to me an ironic possibility with regard to the Shiites. She said that many Shiites in East Baghdad, Basra, and elsewhere may have been timid about opposing the US presence, because they feared the return of Saddam. Saddam was in their nightmares, and the reprisals of the Fedayee Saddam are still a factor in Iraqi politics. Now that it is perfectly clear that he is finished, she suggested, the Shiites may be emboldened. Those who dislike US policies or who are opposed to the idea of occupation no longer need be apprehensive that the US will suddenly leave and allow Saddam to come back to power. They may therefore now gradually throw off their political timidity, and come out more forcefully into the streets when they disagree with the US. As with many of her insights, this one seems to me likely correct.” – blogger Juan Cole, history professor at the University of Michigan, looking on the bright side.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE VI: “Funny how Saddam Hussein appears in the news just when both the American and British Governments are struggling to gather support for their respective ‘Presidential’ campaigns. This fantastic piece of detective work has the same smell as the reason the war was ‘inaugurated’.” – David, Rome, Italy, another BBC listener.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE VII: “Saddam might call on Donald Rumsfeld and say I met him in 1983 and he sold me chemical weapons to use against the Kurds and of course the Americans don’t want that. I think they may be very embarrassed. The Americans ordered his assassination before they caught him so clearly there’s not much chance of him getting a fair trial,” – British anti-war deputy, Tony Benn.

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE VIII: A classic interview from a clueless anti-war interviewer on Australian television:

Sharon Ghidella: What about Australians troops though, we’ve still got 850 Australian troops over there in Iraq, surely now that we’ve got Saddam Hussein, they’re on the road to recovery as such, or towards democracy, isn’t it time to pull the Australian troops out of Iraq? Prime Minister John Howard: No I don’t believe so. Ghidella: Why not? Howard: Because the job is not yet done, it’s not completed, we have caught Saddam but that doesn’t mean that overnight…

Another classic question from Ghidella: ” The world may rejoice, but globally though it’s not going to have that much of an impact is it, the fact that Saddam Hussein has now been captured, he hasn’t been in power for seven months.”

GALLOWAY AWARD NOMINEE IX: This one is really ingenious. Indymedia – one of the major anti-war sites – simply (as of 10.30 pm last night) doesn’t mention the capture of Saddam at all. Its more pressing headlines? “Majority of the population of Uruguay votes against privatisation.” “Activists Gather in DC to Oppose CAFTA.” Eloquence itself.

GALLOWAY AWARD NONINEE X: “Wipe away the celebration spittle. The capture of Saddam Hussein, like so much surrounding this fantasy war, will produce more questions than it answers. Just as the U.S. administration worked the PR machine when the war ‘officially ended’ now the capture of Hussein will also prove to be just another plastic Turkey moment. Another moment that does not really matter.” – Adam Porter, GuerrillaNews.com.

VON HOFFMAN AWARD NOMINEE: “The task force’s search for Saddam was, from the beginning, daunting. According to Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector, it may have been fatally flawed as well. From 1994 to 1998, Ritter directed a special U.N. unit that eavesdropped on many of Saddam Hussein’s private telephone communications. ‘The high-profile guys around Saddam were the murafaqin, his most loyal companions, who could stand next to him carrying a gun,’ Ritter told me. ‘But now he’s gone to a different tier-the tribes. He has released the men from his most sensitive units and let them go back to their tribes, and we don’t know where they are.’ … The task force, in any event, has shifted its focus from the hunt for Saddam as it is increasingly distracted by the spreading guerrilla war.” – anti-war journalist, Seymour Hersh, in last week’s New Yorker.

My favorite response from the “progressives”: “It just don’t make me any money.” Ah, the strain of the moral high ground!

A riveting account of a confrontation between Saddam and the new Iraqi government:

Mr. Rubaie said: “One thing which is very important is that this man had with him underground when they arrested him two AK-47’s and did not shoot one bullet. I told him, ‘You keep on saying that you are a brave man and a proud Arab.’ I said, ‘When they arrested you why didn’t you shoot one bullet? You are a coward.’
“And he started to use very colorful language. Basically, he used all his French.”
Mr. Rubaie added: “I was so angry because this guy has caused so much damage. He has ruined the whole country. He has ruined 25 million people.
“And I have to confess that the last word was for me: I was the last to leave the room and I said, ‘May God curse you. Tell me, when are you going to be accountable to God and the day of judgment? What are you going to tell Him about Halabja and the mass graves, the Iran-Iraq war, thousands and thousands executed? What are you going to tell God?’ He was exercising his French language.”

Ah, French. Not literally, of course. But a lovely little irony, don’t you think?

(for thinly veiled disappointment at the capture of Saddam): “I’m a bit sad that it puts an end to this battle of David against Goliath. We must acknowledge that Saddam Hussein is a cunning, if not a talented leader. He may look defeated, tired, dejected but when you think of all the means deployed to get rid of him, it’s just a tremendous achievement to have been able to survive.” – BBC listener/viewer, Bernard Franck Dehlinger, Ris-Orangis, France. Where else?

Interesting report from Time:

Along with the $750,000 in cash, two AK 47 machine guns and pistol found with Saddam, the U.S. intelligence official confirmed that operatives found a briefcase with Saddam that contained a letter from a Baghdad resistance leader. Contained in the message, the official said, were the minutes from a meeting of a number of resistance leaders who came together in the capital. The official said the names found on this piece of paper will be valuable and could lead to the capture of insurgency leaders around the Sunni Triangle.

Interesting and promising. He had two AK-47s and didn’t even resist? The tyrants are always cowards underneath.

“I don’t know what to say.. I am confused.. no … I am very happy.. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy.. .. I am very happy..
This is the end of tyranny.. congratulations .. a great day.. for Iraqi and all the good people.. share us our great day.. I can’t express my feelings.. thanks to the coalition forces and all the honest people who helped in that great operation….thank you thank you thousand times.”

You’re welcome. And as I read this and other Iraqi blogs written by people who lived under a kind of terror that we in the West have no way to understand or truly empathize with, I feel a lump in my throat. I am so proud of the country I was born in and the country I have made my home. I have never been prouder to be an Anglo-American, to have done in our time what so many before us have done – to broaden the possibilities of liberty, to bring hope, to restrain the violent men and evil ideologies that are each generation’s responsibility. The men and women in our armed forces did the hardest work. They deserve our immeasurable thanks. But we all played our part. By facing down the evil, the cowardly and the simply misguided, we have done a great good.

This event must, of course, come as a terrible blow to many ordinary Arabs, who have been fed for years on the possibility that Saddam might be the next Caliph. He wasn’t deposed by Arabs; he didn’t put up a fight; he is no martyr either – just a coward in a miserable little hole. The point of this is not to humiliate Arabs, of course. But it is to attempt to break the mass delusions that have both kept other dictators in power and prevented progress in the Arab world. Taking Saddam alive – and giving him all the dignity of a bedraggled hobo – is about as big a propaganda victory as the forces against terror can hope to accomplish.