From the AP on the Saddam Hussein trial: Dressed in black trousers and a gray jacket, Saddam was the last of eight defendants to enter the courtroom, walking with a swagger, appearing confident and acknowledging people with the traditional Arabic greeting, “Peace be upon the people of peace.” He also carried a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Quran.
Come to think of it, do we even know if Bin Laden and Zarqawi are really believers or just expoliting religious belief for political gain? Of course, we don’t.
Cori Dauber makes a nice point on this:
The Times is burying the lede like Blackbeard buried his treasure, but it’s clear that the Iraqis are stepping up.
Oh I get it. The fact that he carried a Koran proves that he was behind 9/11.
Related post:
Saddam’s Trial Begins–And the Poor Dictator Has No Pen!
http://ginacobb.typepad.com/gina_cobb/2005/11/saddams_trial_b.html
I think the old saw about patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel needs some updating. Remember Clinton walking to church with his bible the week after the Lewinsky scandal broke?
As for Saddam’s connection with 9-11, it appears to me that the only folks claiming they were duped by this are liberal Democrats who opposed the war. Which raises the question as to who’s duping whom?
Come to think of it, do we even know if Bin Laden and Zarqawi are really believers or just expoliting religious belief for political gain? Of course, we don’t.
I often asked the same question about Slick Willie.
It’s a myth that Saddam and other Ba’athists were strictly secular. According to Ba’ath party ideology, Islam was the flame that purified the spirit of Arab nationalism. Consider this quote from the July 1943 manifesto, the founding document of Ba’athism:
“We wish that a full awakening in Arab Christians of their nationalism takes place, so that they can see in Islam a nationalist education for themselves, which they must cherish and fill themselves of because it is part of their nature and history, and because it is an arena in which the Arabs have proved their ability in thought, moral force, and spiritual ascendancy.” (quoted in Republic of Fear, p. 198).
Christian Arabs, in other words, had to convert to Islam in order to be good Arabs. Not exactly opposed to Islam, those Ba’athists.
Admittedly, this is probably not the most sincere expression of religion. It’s common for nationalists to seize on religion as a way to make distinctions from other groups — just look at all those drunken Yugoslav soldiers who wore ostentatious crosses as they slaughtered Bosnian Muslims. But nor does it mean, as Carl Levin suggested this weekend, that Saddam was dead-set opposed to Islamists. If he were, why would he have hosted annual conferences in Baghdad to bring Islamic radicals together — conferences that Zawahiri and Zarqawi both attended?
About Saddam’s Koran– maybe he’s just cramming for his finals.
Didn’t Saddam have the Koran written in his blood?
I think the only people who believe Arabs can not be oppurtunistic are simple minded liberals.
BTW, I don’t know if Saddam had anything to do with 9/11 or not, but he was connected to the first attack on the WTC and so far as I know the Democrats calling Bush a liar could care less. I guess it is not the malice that matters, it is the body count.
Reminds me of one of my clients who brought a Bible to his violation of probation sentencing… He also brought his social worker, a litany of excuses and complaints of illness. The joke was that the judge who was to sentence him was not there.
Well, it does remind me of Bill Clinton’s conspicuously carrying a Bible to church during his Monica troubles. I wish someone would post his and Saddam’s holy-book carrying photos together, although I think Bill and Uday would have understood each other better.