Post by pedroPost by pedroPost by Tourette'sPerhaps because Saddam wasn't painting himself as the bulwark of
democracy, the protector of liberty, the defender of freedom and the
liberator of some oppressed people. He was a vicious, murderous
thug who rigged elections and maintained a cult of personality, but at
least he was up-front about it.
Oh yeah sure he was. That's why there was no freedom of the press or
media, and
Post by pedroonly state sponsored tv. That's why brainwashed Iraqis sing his praises
since
Post by pedrothey have no knowledge of the realities.
I don't think Iraqis were brainwashed, pedro, I think they were and are
a whole lot more intelligent than you give them credit for. People didn't
necessarily become 'brainwashed', compliant and subservient to the
Baathist regime, they just pretended to be because dissenters were taken
away and tortured and killed.
No shit. To wit:
MAHAWEEL, Iraq (AP) - The killers kept bankers' hours. They showed up for
work at the barley field at 9 a.m., trailed by backhoes and three buses
filled with blindfolded men, women and children as young as 1.
Every day, witnesses say, the routine was the same: The backhoes dug a
trench. Fifty people were led to the edge of the hole and shot, one by one,
in the head. The backhoes covered them with dirt, then dug another hole for
the next group.
At 5 p.m., the killers - officials of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party - went
home to rest up for another day of slaughter.
In this wind-swept field in the central town of Mahaweel, witnesses say,
this went on without a break for 35 days in March and April of 1991, during
a crackdown on a Shiite Muslim uprising that followed the first Gulf War.
``I watched this with my own eyes,'' said Sayed Abbas Muhsen, 35, whose
family farm was appropriated by Saddam's government for use as a killing
field. ``But we couldn't tell anyone. We didn't dare.''
The mass grave at Mahaweel, with more than 3,100 sets of remains, is the
largest of some 270 such sites across Iraq. They hold upward of 300,000
bodies; some Iraqi political parties estimate there are more than 1
million.
Nor is American generosity lost on the beneficiaries:
BAGHDAD (AP)--Up to 1,000 Iraqis, including children orphaned by the war
that ousted Saddam Hussein, marched through Baghdad yesterday to denounce
guerrilla attacks and show support for U.S.-led occupation forces. . . .
Carrying banners blaming Saddam loyalists for terrorism, the demonstrators
marched down one of Baghdad's busiest streets before gathering in Firdos
Square, where a statue of Saddam was famously pulled down as U.S. troops
drove into the heart of the capital in April.
"We organized this demonstration because the terrorists now kill a lot of
people," said Abdul Aziz Al-Yassiri, coordinator of the Iraqi Democratic
Trend, a recently formed social group.
"They kill the children, kill women, kill the people, kill the police. They
want to stop our plan for a democratic system."