Saddam: The Arab Hope By Way of Stalin

Whenever I read one of those interviews which highlight the more progressive side of Saddam Hussein, there is a deep sense of frustration at what might have had happened had things been more forthcoming : had Saddam been less of a megalomaniac and had not the Islamist tide turned its ugly head in ; true, Iraq was built on sectarian foundations, and it's eventual for him to be part of the sectarian composition of politics in the end, but Saddam was largely interested in his own tribe for loyalty before his own sect. This great interview with Said K. Aburish, previously linked by our sectarian friend Iraqi Mojo, perhaps offers one of the more interesting profiles of Saddam Hussein : a brutal dictator who wouldn't "hesitate to kill 50% of the Iraqi population to bring Iraq into the 20th century," and most interestingly a schizophrenic who simultaneoulsy thinks in tribal and modernist fashions.
Everything makes sense in this interview, Aburish, a Palestinian who surprisingly has no misgivings about what Saddam Hussein really is, paints him as a cruel Machievllian but in a somewhat apologetic tone, as if he was in many times forced to adopt the path that he had taken, and because in the end his cause is to bring Iraq "into the 20th century."
Many people around the world are saying that for Iraq to survive it should be led by a secular modernist, but that does not seem to be necessarily achievable except by crushing the horrid religious factions squabbling all over Iraq, i.e what you need is a strongman who favors the nation-state (as opposed to religion) like the ones US employ all around the Middle East. Saddam Hussein was all of that, the problem for the United States is that Saddam Hussein was not your average Jordanian or Egyptian ruler, he was an ambitious workaholic who actually wanted to change the status-quo and make a name out of himself as the leader of a self-reliant Arab superstate, and this is why they kept him busy with equally ambitious Khomeini and destroyed both countries in the process, if anything, this interview exposes beautifully the criminal role the United States played many times when dealing with Saddam, such as the several measures they implemented to curtail him after the Iran war ended, as well as helping to stop the 1991 Uprising against him from actually happening, Aburish makes sense when he says that the United States viewed Saddam as a necessary evil because without him Iraq would disintegrate, which is what's slowly happening right now. Aburish also makes a correct distinction between the Arab and Iraqi perspectives of Saddam, the former, knowing but certainly less affected by his genocides view him first as the anti-Western imperalist, while Iraqis the other way around.
While Aburish states that Saddam had no real ideology, it seems to me that the greatest problem is just that, that Saddam came to represent the Pan-Arab ideology, the problem with the latter is that it is a secular version of Sunni Islam, the two share the ultra-nationalistic outlook with the major battles, the brave heroes and the conquest, and when it comes to dealing with extraneous entities, such as Shia, whose version of Arab history is one of oppression and injustice, or non-Arab Kurds, the Pan-Arabists employ a simple solution, forcefully impose their ideology without really trying to integrate those different sects into a meaningful entity, this is what Karfan means when he says that al-Assad managed to convince Alawite Syrians that they're bad Muslims, or the huge Baathist literature which stresses the fictionalized differentiation between 'Good Jaffari Shiism' and Saffavid Shiism (which really means all of Shiism). Saddam came to start his Arab leader project from a country that is barely Arab, and yet sometimes when I read about the Saddam of the 70s, the one of progress and modernization, the one I never saw, it looks like a fairytale dream to me that we would've been much better off than coming to terms with our fragile existence as a true nation-state. One of two ugly things seem to be more likely to happen than true democracy after Saddam:

1. Iraq ceases to exist as sectarian and ethnic realities unfold.
2. Religious parties will rule for a very long time.

It's curious to see what America is really going to do with Iraq, at the expense of millions of deported and dead Iraqis, and the death of Iraq itself, as for us Iraqis, as we look around the only remotely successful in our region are the sellout rich ones who are aligned to the West, yet this sort of prosperity is artificial (how many people told you Dubai has no soul?) and contains not a slight amount of humility, but it seems to be the best course for Iraq right now, we've had enough wars, we just want to live and if we get lucky enough and get an isolationist secular dictator who defeats all these Islamist bugs and is quite content at being a stooge, we just might. Our dream of having a truly intrinsic, genuinely patriotic leadership seems elusive for the moment. And of course, America will sell us out the moment we do not conform to its own interests, but for the moment we seem to share goals and on the long run there seems to be no other way.
Go Alusi Go.

The Russians have voted their mass-murderer Stalin the number two Russian of all time, and only 28% see him as a bad person (49% positive).

April Glaspie: Assad smart, Saddam megalomaniac

April Glaspie, the US ambassador in Iraq who was accused of not warning Saddam enough before he invaded Kuwait, spoke to Dar al-Hayat, here are some things she said, some of which I've been saying here on this blog:

* Saddam's issue with Kuwait isn't just oil theft, he's just megalomaniac.His whole political career derived from overcoming the humiliation of his past . He came from nowhere, he was a self-made man...he grew up at a time when Iraqis believed understandably they were worthy of the leadership of the Arab world just as Egyptians are...it was not the party and what Michel Aflaq wanted, it was his own sense of becoming the leader of the Arab world, after all in his own thinking, it was he who stood against the ancient enemy and beat them back (his war with Iran).

i.e. Saddam's career was a desperately grandiose attempt at trying to be Gamal Abdul-Nassir.

* A very distinguished Iraqi Sunni professor at Bagdad University who was tortured by Saddam who got out of Iraq years before the war once said to me something which is perfectly obvious, but sometimes we tend to forget very obvious things. He said there is only one thing in the world that would make the general Sunni population ever get behind Saddam, because for every reason that we know they have been terrorized by him and that is if they though there was a real possibility of the Shiites taking control in Baghdad. That is perfectly obvious but for a diplomat it is important to remember.

true.

* The British with extraordinary technology of their time tried very hard, spoke more Arabic than the current coalition forces, were working within their old former mandate, they had all the maps they knew every place in Iraq from north to south and they could not do it. I think that the reasons that they could not do it are there for anybody to read and the same difficulties have emerged now.

very true, Iraq was built on a sectarian basis but America needn't entrench it : the Americans should have done their homework

* The difference between Hafiz and Saddam: Completely different, people around President Assad respected his power. Assad was the Eastern Mediterranean, a Levantine; he could be extremely charming which is interesting coming from a very disadvantaged background as he was in every way. He had a great deal of self confidence, he was charming, he could have been a Beirut hostess, he could be genuinely amusing, he always spoke Arabic although I knew from his pilot training he must know some English. Assad was much too subtle and smart to want people to say yes to him all the time. my life as a diplomat in Syria was as free as it would have been in Beirut, o doubt people were watching us and knew where we were but no Syrian would think twice about inviting me to their house, I never entered an Iraqi house except once and that was for a cultural event. Saddam when you were with him there was this huge tension in the air because everybody in the room from his own staff was afraid of him and I never heard him make a joke but if he would have, everybody would have laughed. It was a completely different aura. In Iraq, it was much more frightening.

Full interview (English) [a little difficult to read, pargraphs are stuck together and there are many grammar issues.]

The Shia Arab Question, Prologue

PROLOGUE

Azadi, The Persian Baathist

NOTE: Read this first and pretend the links don't exist, then read it with the links.

Glorious Persia,

How I have wished to live in you 200 years ago, under the rightful rule of the Sassanids, blissful in the abode of your lovely domains, I would choose to be anything, details are of no concern to me, let me be a lowly porter in the dirty streets of Shiraz, or a loyal servant of the royal chamber in Ctesiphon. What matters is that I would breathe in every minute the air of your magnificence, the eminence of your culture, that I hold my high high, basking in the power of your empire. The land of the Aryans, destined to rule the world, home of the proud and the noble Persians.

How grave is the insult, devastating the injury, then, to see your domain desecrated by those lizard-eating Bedouins, to see those uncivilized nomads, united in an inexplicable fashion, devouring your terrains and eradicating your legacy, how can I be calm when I see those people which we used to rule in [Iraq], Yemen and the [Persian] Gulf destroy the foundations of your beauty and rule, to see foolish peasants embrace their religion, sometimes welcoming them with wide open arms, celebrating what they claim is release from our tyranny and repression!?! How shameful, it is to see our own brave men abused and sold as second-hand slaves, our women and daughters kept as concubines and spoils of war, how much I had rejoiced at the death of their cursed head, Umar, by the patriotic martyr, Abu Lu'lu', they tried to pretend they came with equality, tolerance and respect in the eyes of their religion in the beginning, but their warped intentions soon became evident, the new rulers, the Umayyads, are actively disrespecting us, shunning us from all public posts and claim that this is the payback for the "inequality" that we used to treat them with, those uncouth scum! We treated them with more than they deserve in the first place, but this is how the vermin Arabs repay kindness, scum remains scum.

Persia,

For many centuries your enemies have surrounded you from all sides, since time immemorial you have been destroyed a thousand times, many times had they tried, from Alexander the Terrible and his barbarians in the north, to this army of darkness, but you have always managed to come back again, stronger, more powerful, and with a greater sense of pride and duty than ever before, never shall we surrender to the swords of the Barefoots, and now the chance is ripe, now the bounty is at hand ; now it all comes to head, Hussein bin Ali has been killed, now his sympathizers and kin are angry and regretful, even people who were fooled by the Arabs are quickly realizing their gross mistake, everyone is intent on attaining freedom again, and we, of all nations, plan to strike back, the idea of revolution is quickly finding ground all over your lovely terrains, the Arab domain is collapsing, their dynasty is rife with turbulence, and Abu Muslim al-Khurasani is now rallying your dedicated citizens for the great cause, we shall fight them everywhere, and we shall never surrender, and soon Persia would be alive again, its language, its culture, its greatness, are all immortal and will never be gone ; it may be different, but one way or another, Persia will live on.

Your Son,
Azadi.

عمر بشكست پشته هجبران عجم را برباد فنا داد رگ وريش جم را
اين عربده وخصم خلافة زعلي نسيت با آل عمر كينه قديم أست عجم را
*
ميت و المعزيات موش امهاته
ما يبجن على المات يبجن شماته

Saddam bin Hussein and Hussein bin Ali

"For you are Hussein and I am Hussein, and today we shall see which Hussein will come triumphant."
- Hussein Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law, addressing Imam Hussein's shrine in Kerbala during the 1991 Shiite revolution.

Due to the differences between the Hijri Islamic calendar, based on the moon, and the universally adopted Gregorian Sun-based calendar, the Islamic one is shorter by 11 days, as a result, in about three years, the Gregorian date for the execution-martyrdom of one Saddam-Hussein will take place suspiciously near the Imam Hussein mythical one back in the Hijri 10th of Muharram, 680 AD.

This post is delievered to you in the accompaniment of the Imam Hussein's Arbaieen, which is an Arab tradition to honor the 40th day after the mourning day of the actual date for the person's death. Preferably listen to this flagellation piece while reading, and also, it doesn't hurt to check out this new item about Saddam's upcoming bio-(e)pic, wattnun madda!

Imam Hussein, the eternal revolutionnary, the ship of safety, the ongoing crusade against tyranny all across the world, and Saddam Hussein, the very crystallization of all the principles against the historical Imam fought for, and lost, and died.

Coming from parallel universe these two men might be, but there is one enchanting similarity between the two which I felt interesting to share with you.

In 680 AD, Muwaiya, the caliph, has designated his son, Yazid, as his heir, hinting about an intention to hold a dynasty, a first occurence in the new Islamic state. Most of the Muslims, either grudgingly or not, wishing no further bloodshed, agreed upon this, a few prominent figures in Mecca tried to delay the matter of their response, and Imam Hussein was one of them, twenty years earlier, Imam Hussein's father, the celebrated Imam Ali, had fought a bloody civil war with Muawiya, Ali's forces were centered in Kufa, the first Islamic city built in Iraq, and his army was called the Iraqi army, while Muawiya was the emir of Sham (Levant, modern day Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon), and his army was called Shammi army, Imam Ali was almost victorious when the stubborness of his own men brought him into a stalemate, all his attempts to rekindle the vigour and zeal of rightesouness afterwards fell on deaf words, and he was so sick of them that at the end he wished that he never came to them. After Ali was killed by a renegade force of his own army, his elder son, Imam Hasan, being a peace-lover and seeing that his shaky, reluctant troops were no match for Muawiya's suave political abilities, settled on ending the war and that Muawiya becomes Caliph. As soon as Yazid assumed caliphate however, Imam Hussein began receiving letters from his father's followers in Kufa, urging him to come to them and declare rebellion, being eager to reclaim his rightful title, he ignored all advice about the riff-raff nature of the Kufians, and that they were the same people who failed his father two decades ago, he marched to Kufa in 680 AD, and sent his cousin, Muslim bin Aqeel, as a scout to look into the matter, at that time, Hussein's followers were nearly 18,000 men in Kufa. The Umayyads would not remain silent over this dangerous threat, having just sustained their foothold back in the upper layer of the Arab society after a lull of 40 years, and they knew the reluctance of the Kufians well, the emir of Kufa, Ubaidullah Bin Zeyad, sent his own men into the masses and they began discouraging people skillfully by threats and promises, and pretty soon enough the once proud force Aqeel gathered dwindled to about thirty men, and he was shortly killed thereafter. Hussein was on route upon hearing the news, and shortly thereafter he was intercepted and prevented from returning back whence he came, and was savagely killed with his 80 men by the very same followers of his in the Battle of Kerbala, not a single soldier of the army which surrounded him was from Sham, all were Iraqis.

The Iraqis would soon feel regret for their shameful actions, and little by little people would come and visit his shrine, feeling an alarming guilt consicence that only got bigger and bigger over the years...

This is the story of Imam Hussein, it is the final straw that broke the unity camel's back of the Muslim nation and it still embarrasingly is a source of tensions that plague us until today.

The story of Saddam Hussein, however, is the stuff of which black comedies of the darkest of the dark are made of, The moustached man has spent the better part of his last years in seeking a monument to retain his personal majesty, he tried all the tried methods: writing glorious roman a clefs, erecting huge Nebuchanedzzar-like monuments where every brick has his initials,or going on a campaign of a Saddam statue for every Iraqi of the 28 million inside the blasted little country. Before, he was a mere tyrant, yes, he was feared by some, respected by others, but by a little extraordinary performance at the gallows, Saddam, always the showman, has climaxed an inventive carrier at the little screen and has achieved the one thing he has purusing all his lifetime, Saddam is now a mythical figure in the Arab folklore, one who is now looked for between the heavenly celestial bodies, or by his assprint on the moon, one whose soul is sensed in the gatherings of nationalistic conferneces. And what could you do but laugh and hoot at the sight of a nation which spans from the Atlantic to the Pacific, toasting for the memory of a man who enslaved, killed, committed genocide, and just about tortured his country in every possible way?

Saddam's similarity with Imam Hussein is in that Arabs today are doing for Saddam Hussein what Shiites did for Hussein some 1300 years ago, treating him with a reluctant zeal born not from that is mostly indifference while he was alive, but once he is dead - he is immediately subscribed with the pantheon of the holies, each in their comparative league, of course. There are justifications for this, Both Shiites back then and Arabs today are on the losing side, when you lose, you tend to search for answers in your own ideology and immediately begin demonizing the other side (Jews/Americans in our case, all Sunni rulers in Shiites case) as fearfully as possible, of course, Imam Hussein is an immediate grandson for the Prophet Muhammed, and this is simply too tempting to just dangle about in the air for people who are getting persecuted mercilessly during the Abbasid and Umayyad times, so the addition of a few supernatural flairs such as knowning the future and the doom of his adventure but doing it anyway, adding those traits to his already growing mystique was not only predictable but almost inevitable. Saddam Hussein, to his unfortunate luck, was born in unmythical times, and this would limit his stature to a mere hero and national pride for the Arab nation - the Arab world is currently locked in the mentality that America is a direct or indirect enemy, due to their support for Israel, and they seek people who can recompsenate our own idleness and reliance on Western products and culture everywhere in people such as Saddam Hussein, who stands defiantly in the face of his blank executioner, who looked cowardly in sock he wore over his head. For in the Arab mind, another Battle of Kerbala has taken place, only televised and brought to the living room, right before their naked eyes, indeed, if anything, why is not the United States Yazid I, in his far-reaching tyranny, and why is not Nuri al-Maliki, why, Ubaidallah bin Ziyad, the cruel emir of Kufa, and what comes if indeed Saddam Hussein, is the Hussein bin Ali, the martyr of justice and the redeemer of religion, reincarinated?

Let us suppose that hypothetically Iran goes crazy and invades all the Arab countries, liberating Shiites everywhere and resurrecting the glories of anceint Persia, would not Saddam Hussein be fondly remembered, reverred, and perhaps, if we were living a few thousand years back, semi-worshipped?


Baghdad, 2712 AD

We all huddled as the oracle was beginning her tale, she would tell it exactly the way she heard it from her mother, who heard it from her own mother, generation to generation, we pass the maqtal to future generations, we love it, and it is a way of our life, and we listen, ponder and cry for our own ailment. The days when our country was not yet awashed by the invaders from the west and the east, back when a cursed thing called oil was still in our country, before the great darkness began. On the light of the candle lamp, the oracle's features were grim, her eyes closed, and then suddenly she opened her eyes and began to tell the tale:

"In a small village in Tikrit, back when the times were pleasant and the meadows were yet green, happiness was filling the land and birds were chirping in the skies, a boy was born in the darkest of nights, and suddenly the moon came in full behind the raining clouds, and the glorious life-affirming cries of the small child came to open the silence. The mother stood silent and happy watching the baby in the father's arms...
"What shall we name him?"
"Crusher (Saddam), because he shall crush the unjust enemies."
and thereby comes the prophecy of the ancient prophet Mohammed, peace be upon be him, true, for he once said: "There comes a great darkness over my nation, when will grows scarce and the night grows long, but then comes Sadim*, and he refills the land with justice as it was filled with injustice, before he is lifted to his creator, and then injustice gets its chance to reign superme."

Even when he's dead...he kills people

Goddammit!

From DNAINDIA: MULTAN (Pakistan): A young boy who tried to imitate hanging scenes from the execution video of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein died in central Pakistan, police said on Monday.

Mubashar Ali, 9, hanged himself, while re-enacting Hussein's hanging with the help of elder sister, 10, after tying a rope to a ceiling fan and his neck in his home in Rahim Yar Khan district on Sunday, a local police official said.

The father of the deceased boy said that his children had been watching the video of Saddam Hussein's execution on television and attempted to imitate the hanging as other family members thought they were playing in another room.

"My wife and sister rushed to rescue Mubashar when children cried for help from the adjoining room, but he died due to hanging," Alamgir Paracha, father of Mubashar, said.

Police said the death was accidental and a case of parental negligence.

"It was an accident which happened due to carelessness of parents," district police chief Sultan Ahmad said.

Images of the fallen Iraqi dictator with a noose around his neck, surrounded by executioners in balaclavas, were repeatedly telecast by Pakistani television channels at the weekend.

Commentators and the media across Europe had expressed shock and unease Sunday at graphic television pictures showing the last moments of Hussein before his execution.


The stupidity of the governmnet has now turned Saddam into an underdog symbol of heroism, and when our country ceases to exist and the amoeba grows into nearby countries, expect the Guevara-style rebel t-shirts to sell. Although Majed came up with the idea, i call patenting!

Welcome 2007. May the next Eid brings the executions of the rest of the crew:

THE DEAD POOL
1. Abdilaziz al-Hakim
2. Muqtada al-Sadr
3. Harith al-Dhari
4. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi DEAD
5. Saddam Hussein DEAD
6. Baqir "Bayan" Jabr Solagh
7. Adnan al-Dulaymi (although i don't think he's worth much - just a fat cow full of farts, he's been put there so that I don't get accused of being sectarain.)
8. Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer

Mixed Emotions

On the end of my last post, I wrote: "and I can't wait to see what happens next, Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life"

and what a day!

The storm gathered by yesterday's evening...and by the time it was certain...I was too tired and went to sleep, I went to sleep at 2 AM...thinking that sometimes during my sleep, the most famous Iraqi of the 20th century will be executed...

I woke up at 9, mumbled Happy-eids to parents, then headed straight to the TV...and I recieved the images...the first thing that struck me was how unbelievable this was...Saddam was a part of my everyday patterns as a human being, I woke up, ate, drank, shat, slept, and Saddam is the undefeatable tyrant that never dies. It was hard, hard, hard to know that Saddam is no more, he was arrested, humilitaed and sentenced to death and I didn't feel much - but to know that he is gone is very strange - He was a given fact of life! and now he's dead...This doesn't happen in the world that I normally inhibit...

I also must say that from all the people that ruled Iraq at any given time, I do not hate any of them as much as I hate Saddam Hussein - through his stubborn Great Leader complex he has made us suffer so much, and pretty much a lot of the blame for the distingeration of Iraq as a fabric can be laid squarely on his shoulders, but while I was seeing these images, I had to keep reminding myself how much I hated Saddam Hussein, because they were flat-out disgusting. The problem of our politicians is that they always have to ruin the good stuff with the bad stuff, Mowafaq al-Rubay'ie, the national security advisor, said that Saddam looked very weak and pathetic while he was taking his final steps, but in the images I watched he looked just as brave, magnificent and charismatic as ever, despite his great evils, I must say that Saddam Hussein is the bravest guy that ever ruled Iraq. The problem is that Saddam is an extremely charismatic figure, he can drive many people to inspiration and is simply the most bravest man of all his opponents, Muwafaq, al-Maliki, al-Jaafari and al-Hakim wouldn't stand for two seconds alone with this guy, they all ran weeping to Americans...It's just, unfair, that they should be sing-songing like this while not only are they as cruel as he, but they are nowhere as brave or influential as him.
While I think that Saddam deserves a thousand hangings, I completely disapprove of the way they have handled this - they chose a very bad timing for it, the holy Eid is a day of joy, of happiness, of forgiveness, people do not want to start their day by watching a man insulted a thousand times with a rope at his neck, true, I completely understand the fact that there are hundreds of families who are glad to see Saddam suffer and die like their sons and families did, but they are not all Iraqis, and they are not all people, and true, maybe Shiites would feel there might be a religious conrguence for this timing as it is harmonious with the vengeful nature of Shiite Islam, as hatred of tyranny and cruel avengance are major pillars in their sect, but with the confusion of Iraqis everywhere and growing tensions, such delicate matters should not be handled as bluntly as they were when all the other people watch these images accompanied by the whole lot of insults and curses, on such a holy peaceful occasion, the feeling they give you is one of complete injustice and being cruller than the man they are hanging.

The joy that could have been to see Saddam executed was lost in the bad conditions to which Iraq is heading, from a strategic point of view, Saddam's killing could go a long way in dispiriting Baathists, as Baath is largely a personality cult - it is without doubt a significant hit to morale, but it still remains unknown how far could this psychologically curb them.

As for our naive Arab brothers here and Jordan, they completely condemned and rejected the sentence, they lost a 'great Arab leader who was the only one with balls' - yeah, Saddam did stand up, but look at the price we paid for that little hypocrisy of his.

I am sure many Iraqis have been relieved at the execution, and they have every right to, but it's a shame that this sight has saddened many others by the stupid way it was handled.

I don't know of a precise word for my feelings - Little if at all joy, unbelieving numbness and extreme disappointment. I've always wanted Saddam to be killed, but the guy had a way of making you feel sorry for him.

UPDATES: Here is the complete Saddam execution video that was partly aired on al-Jazzeera network from Kitabat.com, it's shot using a mobile phone by one of the guards, and it shows how his neck was broken in the end, the guard who shot it stands at the western side of the room - two other version have resurfaced, the other is from the right side of the room and was broadcast at Al-Sharqiya TV (bad audio quality though), while the other displayed photos of Saddam after he was killed and was aired on Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Beladi TV.
also, a fellow Shiite blogger has described this execution in the perfect words, which are the words of Imam Ali himself during the Great Civil War:

"Kalimat Haqq Yuradu Biha Batil"
"A word of right that is used for an implicit wrong."

Saddam's Sentence

Baghdad, Iraq - Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the death of 184 Shiites in al-Dijail case today, ending a long courtroom session that witnessed the death of several people involved in the ordeal more than one year from the date the whole facade started.

Other sentences included two other deaths for notorious courtdroom drama bad boy Ibrahim Barazan al-Tikriti (Abu Uday's half-bro) and Awad al-Bandar, head of the Revolution's Court. A life sentence plus some other sentences to be carried out in death for Taha Yassin Ramadhan, and other prison sentences (7, 15) for three other nameless dudes, and one clearance.

ACTING:
Asked about his performance on the trial, Saddam Hussein said that he could've done a lot better and that his performance sounded robotic and uneven, no where near his accolade-earning performances in earlier seasons, while we all respect the great multiple-award winning figure for his fiery and inspirational performances earlier on, he felt like speaking monolgues on cue even while brandishing his Quran, he said that he will be studying performances of Jack Nicholsons in 'A Few Good Men' and Al Pacino's 'Scent of A Woman' and 'And Justice for All' for inspiration for his next performances, which is unlikely that there ever will be - supporting actors like Taha Yassin Ramadhan and Awad Fadhil al-Bandar trotted out usual fares in their comfortable propaganda characters, especially chuckleworthy was the brittle parting speech of Ramadhan, in which he proclaimed: "I know that this court cannot keep me alive nor will it terminates me, but it is only in the will of God and the Mujahideen." He himself looked bored by the drone of such familiar words, they did not even make sense on his tribal, criminal face. This is always bad for actors, and it is rumored that Ramadhan might lose his contract if he keeps up these muddy performances.
Co-star Barazan al-Tikiriti however remained as controversial as ever, ending his role in a surprise twist of calm deadpan delivery: 'Congratulations.', retaining his unpredictable flavor. He later said that this was an improvisation: "I had my lines memorized, but while the cameras were rolling I felt that a silent, brooding look added menace and intrigute to a character often plagued with neurosis, he chuckled in the make-up room.

SCRIPT
While the script was predictable to a great degree, the writers did an especially nice job by some neat touches here and there, there was an ingenious scene where Saddam Hussein, upon hearing his death sentence, shouted: "Allahu Akbar", and a watcher above also said the exact same words - except Saddam said it in protest of the court's injustice while the wather applauded that court's integrity....such an ironic and fascinating display. I also liked the bit where they kick out former US attorney Ramsey Clark in a show of the court's independence and Iraqi spirits. It's very cool to see a bald Kurd kick out a Ramsey Clark (played by Jon Voight).

DIRECTION
The director does an absoluetly brilliant job as always, the visuals are slick and Saddam's make-up is absolutely spot-on, every camera captures a sublte nuance and the special effects are downright spectacular. Brilliant.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most of the Iraqis I've prodded felt oblivious to what could happen to Saddam's neck, a Sunni cousin of mine by the name of Omar in Ghazaliya said: 'To the hell', while another Sunni cousin of mine in Egypt said: 'To the heck." I for one, felt happy, and congratulated everyone I saw. While having justice done to the tyrant would have been so much better if it were not for the sad state of Iraq today, I only felt good today because this could actually achieve good effects on the ground - I think that the minute Saddam is executed many of the Baathists would stop and reconsider what they are fighting for, the Iraqi Baath party always will be a personality cult. Hell may break loose for the next couple of days but remember, we are already in hell, so bring it on.
Jordanians however looked upon the matter from the average benign way Arabs look upon Saddam, a brave valiant hero who stood up against America.

Har

This makes fun of everything and everyone....It is hugely offensive, but is hugely hilarious as well, take your pick.


Osama and Saddam - video powered by Metacafe