Sunday, December 31, 2006
Fareed Zakaria - Reinventing History on 12/30/06
Below is a textbook example of revisionist history, courtesy of Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria. Mr. Zakaria blames Iraq's current plight on the Bush administration's "thoughtless engineering." He steers blame away from the Iraqis themselves despite the fact that Iraqis have been unable to resolve disruptive tribal behavior in order to capitalize on the exceptional opportunity afforded by our country. He ends his article with a definitive statement even though the effort is still a work in progress. This is the classic "white man's burden" mentality that western countries have historically adopted attempting to assist third-world countries without success.
What I find most manipulative is that Zakaria refuses to mention the Bush administration's continued loyalty to the Iraqi people despite the fact that they are almost alone in their quest. Larger than the Iranian led insurgency itself is the American media's constant negative spins fueled by personal bias pumped daily to the public, which is directly responsible for blow back the administration must daily overcome. The resultant loss of public support engenders a loss of support for the war effort, thus hampering the administration's ability to go all out and win.
As is often the case in such smug articles, I see no solution suggested. Simply a finger pointed to facts, based on incomplete knowledge, recognizing that eventually a percentage of the masses will digest and believe incomplete facts as rote. This transparent tactic deserves to be singled out.
Vengence of the Victors
By Fareed Zakaria Newsweek
(Last paragraph of Zakaria's Article - for article in full, see attached)
It has now become fashionable among Washington neoconservatives to blame the Iraqis for everything that has happened to their country. "We have given the Iraqis a republic and they do not appear able to keep it," laments Charles Krauthammer. Others invoke anthropologists to explain the terrible dysfunctions of Iraqi culture. There may be some truth to all these claims—Iraq is a tough place—but the Bush administration is not quite so blameless. It thoughtlessly engineered a political and social revolution as intense as the French or Iranian one and then seemed surprised that Iraq could not digest it happily, peaceably and quickly. We did not give them a republic. We gave them a civil war.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16409404/site/newsweek/
NY Times Glorifying Husseim, Mass Murderer, in Death !
Editor: I find it amazing that of all the coverage I have read regarding the execution of Saddam Hussein, from the BBC to Al Jazeera, no one went out of their way to print a more glorified final portrait of Hussein than our own New York Times. You would think NYT was reporting on the execution of Christ. I place this article on this site simply to memorialize the well-choreographed actions of the top paper in the western world and it's obvious attempt to shape our viewpoints. Again, their version was far more animated and tilted than Al Jazeera's.
On the Gallows, Curses for U.S. and ‘Traitors’
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/world/middleeast/31gallows.html?hp&ex=1167627600&en=9b617230ec600c9d&ei=5094&partner=homepage
How History will Record the Execution of Hussein
Editor- Ralph Peters captured the ultimate reality of what the removal and execution of Saddam Hussein will mean to the world. While it is clearly across the grain to praise any Bush Administration activity, Peters defies the media masses with his clear vision and perspective.
A PROUD DAY FOR U.S. AND A LESSON FOR TYRANTS
By RALPH PETERS - New York Post
December 30, 2006 -- SADDAM Hussein is dead. The mighty dictator met a criminal's end on the gallows. The murderer responsible for 1 1/2 million corpses is just a bag of bones.
For decades, the world pandered to his fantasies, overlooking his brutality in return for strategic advantages or naked profit. Diplomats, including our own, courted him, while the world's democracies and their competitors vied to sell him arms.
Saddam always bluffed - even, fatally, about weapons of mass destruction - but the world declined to call him on his excesses. Massacres went unpunished. His invasions of neighboring states failed to draw serious punishment. He never faced personal consequences until our troops reached Baghdad (a dozen years late).
As long as Saddam paid sufficient bribes and granted the right concessions to the well-connected, the world shut its eyes to his cavalcade of atrocities. Even when his soldiers raped Kuwait, the United Nations barely summoned the will to expel his military - and the alliance led by the United States declined to liberate Iraq itself from a tyrant with a sea of blood on his hands.
Everything changed in 2003. For all of its later errors in Iraq, the Bush administration altered the course of history for the better. It may be hard to discern the deeper meaning of our march to Baghdad amid the chaos afflicting Iraq today, but President Bush got a great thing right: He recognized that the age of dictators was ending, that the era of the popular will had arrived. He and his advisers may have underestimated the difficulties involved and misread the nature of that popular will, but they put us back on the moral side of history.
Bush revealed the bankruptcy of the European-designed system of international relations. An unspoken code agreed between kings and czars, emperors and kaisers, had protected rulers - however monstrous - for centuries, while ignoring the suffering of the masses. The result was that any Third World thug who seized a presidential palace could ravage his country as long as his crimes remained within his "sovereign" borders.
Supported by other English-speaking democracies, Bush acted. Breaking Europe's cynical rules, our forces invaded a dictatorship to liberate its population. And suddenly, the world was no longer safe for tyrants.No matter the policy failures in the wake of Baghdad's fall, the destruction of Saddam's regime remains a historical turning point. When our troops later dragged the dictator out of a fetid hole, every other president-for-life shivered at the image.
Tonight, none of those other oppressors will sleep well. They may try to console themselves that America is failing in Iraq, that we've learned our lessons. But no matter what they tell themselves, they'll never feel safe again.
We set a noble precedent, and the critics who insist that deposing Saddam was a mistake are rushing to a very premature judgment. We did a great thing by overthrowing Saddam. We may have done it poorly, but we did it. We also revealed the hypocrisy of those governments who sold out their professed values for oil money (and pathetically cheaply, too). From Paris and Berlin through Moscow and Beijing, many will never forgive us. We should be honored.
Was justice done when the trapdoor opened under Saddam's feet? In a clinical sense, yes. But such an easy death was far too kind. He should have been turned loose, naked and handcuffed, in the central square of Halabja, where the survivors of his most notorious poison gas attack could have ripped his flesh with their bare hands.
But we live in a civilized community of nations. Bloodthirsty dictators must be executed humanely - and over the protests of human-rights advocates who insist they shouldn't be executed at all. Still, Saddam's death was a last humiliation for him. He lived long enough to see his sons die, destroying his dynastic dreams. And long enough to discover that all those Iraqis jumping up and down and crying "We will die for you, Saddam!" didn't really mean it.
Given all of the recent violence in Iraq, it's remarkable how little has been committed in support of Saddam - occasional demonstrations on his home ground, and little else. There'll be a hiccup of violence now, but even his fellow Baathists have been seeking to regain power for themselves, not for their erstwhile master. (And it's easy to picture their relief at the death of the man they, too, once had to fear.)
The various factions of Iraq are fighting for many things - but Saddam hasn't been one of them. Sycophantic lawyers - Western and Iraqi - doubtless whispered that the people still supported him, that they and his Western friends would never let him hang. (He must have thought ruefully of Ramsey Clark as the noose tightened around his neck.)
Saddam's pathetic grandeur lies in ruins. Millions will celebrate his death; few will mourn. In the end, the all-powerful dictator was just a delusional old man in a cage insisting, "I am the president of Iraq!"
Of course, the Middle East has an ongoing problem with reality. Conspiracy theorists who insisted that the United States was keeping Saddam alive to restore him to power as part of a complex plot will now suggest that one of Saddam's doubles went to the gallows, that the dictator still lives, held in reserve by mysterious forces. But Saddam Hussein is dead, condemned to death by an Iraqi court. Even the die-hards will figure it out in time.
Again, we can be proud that the United States of America brought him down. And that no dictator can ever feel entirely safe again.
President Bush changed the world. For all of today's carnage and confusion, and despite the appalling policy errors after Baghdad fell, the future will show that the change was for the better.
Ralph Peters' most recent book is "Never Quit the Fight."
Voices on the Execution Of Saddam Hussein...hear what they think.
Editor on 12/31/06....Below you will find quotes I have taken directly from the Al Jazeera website following the Iraqi government's execution of Saddam Hussein. Although Al Jazeera did operate a board where anyone could post their thoughts and many thoughts were in favor of the execution, the count was 80% negative. Further, I am disturbed by the position taken by so many and their lack of information.
We hate the americans and we will hate them more for murdering our hero.
muslim, gjovik, Norway
We all in this world know this execution is done by the help of the evil of the century George W.Bush. As he has mentioned, this is a very happy news for him. But we all know one day he will be facing the consequences for what he has done to the human kind. May Allah give Saddam peace. He is a great leader, and we all pray for his soul.
Ibrahim, Kualalumpur, Malaysia
NOW LETS GET THE REAL CULPRITS - Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.
Corpus Mentis Teuchter, Elgin, United Kingdom
i think by hanging sadam on such a occasion is humiliating message for muslims.it show how US is bruital to mulim countries and theire leaders. i agreed that sadam did so many wrong deeds which he has to do to controle his country.but what US hypocrites has done to iraq.the numbers of iraqis killed in one week is equall to the numbers sadam killed during his regieme,if muslims leadrs dont learn any lesson from this history will not forgive them.
jaidu, mardan, Afghanistan
History is always written by the winners. But Americans are not the winners and will not be the winners. Saddam was condemned by a court nominated from a bondservant government in an occupied country. And if Saddam was criminal, Bush and Blair are massive killers, who should be on trial for crimes against humanity. They paid the prize for their policy so far, they will pay bigger prize from now on.
Dimitris , Hania-Crete, Greece
Another great example of American disrespect of Muslim Holy Days, culture and custom. I dont think any other country claiming to be civilized would have chosen execution on a day of significant religious worship & celebration. Perhaps this was Bush's new year present to Papa Bush. This is a direct slap in the face of all muslims. Wake up people, especially muslims in the Middle East and the rest of us else where. Every Muslim on this planet is directly and indirectly responsible for the suffering of our fellow community memebers.
anjum05, Philadelphia, USA
I am ashamed to be an American. We have attacked a sovereign state unprovoked and murdered the ruler and his family and 650,000 Iraqis. I can only theorize that Bush and his handlers - Pat Robinson, Jerry Falwell, Ted Haggart, Carl Rove, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfelt, and unnamed others - are working under the delusion that they are conducting the fourth Christian Crusade that will result in the second coming of Christ.
Bill MacClarence, Anchorage, USA
i have always seen Saddam Hussein asa dictator, now he is a hero for me, a martyr.his execution will not bring stability to Iraq, on the contrary, it will make matters worse, especially for the occupiers.
Saad86, Rabat, Morocco
The US have once again shown their hypocritical colours. Through the US there will never be peace. Their barbaric policies have killed more innocent people in Iraq than Saddam Hussein ever did. They put Saddam in power, armed him, encouraged him, used him and now have killed him. US history in the region reads with blood on every page. If their arrogant crusador mentality did not cause so much pain and suffering, it would be laughable. Another one of their puppets has realised that US 'democracy' is 'hypocrisy'.
Ishaq, London, United Kingdom
The LION OF ARAB WORLD was finally killed by a bunch of blood thirsty Jackals. They did every wrong in the world to Sadam BUT NEVER BROKE HIM. I saw this gallant man very cool, composed and smiling in the last minutes of his life. Hope someday the Bushites and Blair will face justice for Invading Iraq and Afghanistan and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent children, men and women.
Hamayun , Daegu, South Korea
The hanging of Saddam is such a perverse twist of human behavior that it defies all Human decency. The kangaroo court that tried him was an insult to any idea of equal justice ,under the law, for all. The real purpose for his " show trial and execution" was to further Bush's and Blairs goal of creating a devestating civil war between the Sunni's and Shia sects in Iraq. Bush and stooges are responsible for the deaths of 600,000 innocent Iraqi civilians... Will any court ever try them for war crimes and crimes against humanity? The hanging of Sadam will only create more devestation in Iraq and bring us closer to WW lll which Bush,Blair and Olmert want. Humanity prays that the Shia annd Sunni and all Islamic sects will unite against their real enemies as the wisdom of The Holy Koran tells them to do.
Joemomo2003, Boise, USA
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