A Few Comments on the Middle East
The hanging of Saddam
The kerfuffle over the execution of Saddam Hussein is strange, after all Saddam Hussein was a mass murdering dictator responsible for the deaths of millions and millions of people (Iraq-Iran war, war on the Kurds, decimating the marsh Arabs, etc) and some people are strangely concerned that his death should have some dignity? Why? At least he was spared Mussolini's fate and certainly wasn't shot as Ceausescu was.
In fact, Saddam Hussein has been treated fairly well, all things considered, and I am not too surprised that some Iraqi guards might not have been able to contain themselves in those final few moments. Possibly they lost relatives to Saddam's murderous regime, or remember his decimation of whole villages. Conceivably they remember how Saddam's regime tortured and killed people in vats of acid. And as to the videos, I am sure that they are tasteless, but it is conceivable they wanted them as final proof that he had died, and we know from the multitude of conspiracy theories which are in current vogue that even photographic evidence is sometimes not enough (e.g. WTC).
Bush’s way out
Turning to Bush's plan for more troops in Iraq, I suspect that it is a final ploy before George Bush acknowledges the points in the Iraq Survey Group report, and starts a final withdrawal from Iraq. It is conceivable that a major civil war will then ensue between the Sunnis and Shi'ites, and the country would then effectively be partitioned, with America keeping large bases in the Kurdish areas, and trying to avoid direct involement in the civil war. Putting the extra troops into Iraq gives George Bush an excuse to say “I tried, but it wouldn't work, we’ll have to follow the recommendations… etc”
Ami Ayalon
The BBC had an interesting interview on World Service with Ami Ayalon and he makes a lot of sense.
2 comments:
Hi!
I didn't like the interview, although I like Ayalon very much. He is simply not prepared for the grade of demonization of Israel that is now common discourse. It was obvious that he didn't know how to answer properly to a question like "how can you justify that your parents came to the land where Arabs lived for thousand of years..."
The proper response is: if we had killed the Arabs then we would be like a normal American nation, like Mexico or Argentina. We don't have any justifying to do.
And he wasn't good also on the torture issue. All those questions are biased: which country does not torture??? He won't be able to step on Britain, because he will be threatened by a suit. He just made himself the new Sharon for the press.
He shouldn't open his mouth outside Israel. I was dissapointed.
Love the classy
"Look at all the books I've got am I not clever" feature!
Mind you if your blog was not so crashingly, crashingly dull perhaps you would not need this sort of childish justification.
xxx
S
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