Posted on 09/14/2009 5:23:45 AM PDT by SJackson
Saddam Hussein killed more Arabs and Muslims than any other Middle Eastern leader in recent history. He committed genocide against the Kurds, launched wars of aggression against Iran and Kuwait, launched missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia, tortured innocents without compunction and imposed totalitarianism in Iraq. His regime brought unprecedented war, terror and misery to the region. Why, then, does the Butcher of Baghdad remain such a heroic figure to so many Arabs?
Saddam Hussein, at the opening of his trial. Photo: AP [file] Two decades ago, famed historian Bernard Lewis wrote a prescient piece in The Wall Street Journal titled "Not everybody hates Saddam" in which he examined the pro-Saddam narrative of some Arabs. Since then, not much has changed. On a recent trip to Amman, I asked dozens of Jordanians how they felt about the dictator. Tragically, though not surprisingly, Saddam still has a great many fans in the Arab world. Nearly every single Jordanian I spoke with had high praise for the deceased tyrant.
"He gave us free oil," said one. "He stood up to the West," opined another. One cab driver, who had pins with Saddam's picture covering his dashboard, informed me that Saddam was the greatest leader in the Middle East - "Only he was capable of keeping order in Iraq."
TWO PREDOMINANT themes emerged in all my conversations. First, Saddam was seen as the leader of resistance to America and Israel. He fought two wars against America in slightly over a decade and launched dozens of Scud missiles at Israel while other nations stood by. Second, he imposed order in Iraq. True, it was an order of rape, pillage and plunder, but at least it was order. Prizing stability over liberty is the root of so many of the region's ills.
In Arab societies, one quickly realizes that anything can be excused in the name of opposing the West. Some in the Jordanian public had high praise for al-Qaida, for example, when it was hijacking planes and bombing American civilians, but support for the group dropped dramatically once it struck in Amman in 2005. Most Jordanians also never felt the sheer terror of Saddam's regime. They were never suffocated by sarin and VX nerve gas raining down from the skies, never had to flee from helicopter gunships mowing down innocents by the tens of thousands and never had to worry that Uday Hussein, the notorious rapist, would take a liking to their daughter while prowling the streets.
Infuriated by the adulation I heard for Saddam, I asked a friend who had served as chief of staff to one of Iraq's highest politicians to help make sense of this madness. "That is the prevailing mentality in the Arab world," he said. "People in this region are historically insecure. For at least 1,000 years there was nothing but darkness. The glory of the past is so important for them because there is no present, no contribution to modern civilization. Modernity means nothing. History is a continuous crusade-Zionist conspiracy against them, etc. etc. I have no other explanation."
AT LEAST one Jordanian informed me that he did not like to talk politics, but that his entire family was killed by Saddam during the invasion of Kuwait. I mentioned the adulation I had heard for Saddam over the past week and he just shook his head with quiet indignation.
Worship of a genocidal dictator mustn't be excused under any circumstances. To do so is to fall prey to the "soft bigotry of low expectations," to quote a former US president. Admiration for Saddam is a mix of abject ignorance and colossal moral failure. Such madness should not be met with tepid academic interest or casual dismissal. Rather, it must be castigated in no uncertain terms and righted as soon as possible, primarily through education. Those who cheer tyranny from the sidelines are no less responsible than the tyrant himself.
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Children
The mindset of humans, and what they are willing to accept and even admire in the name of maintaining social “order”, is perplexing ... and not limited to arabs.
The West has produced Satan Worshippers .....
satan was worshipped before there was east or west
Satanism as a religion was introduced in 1966 in San Francisco by Anton S. LaVey and has boasted over 10,000 members at any one time. Here is the big hit: Satanism is recognized as a legitimate religion by the government and protected by the U.S. Constitution even though crimes arising from the practice of this religion have caused lawmakers in 24 States to write special bill of rights for its survivors.
So the Arabs still hate Americans and Jews. Even after we tried to give them a Democracy they still hate. There isn’t much worth saving over in that part of the world. I guess we should just leave and let them kill each other like they are going to do anyway.
ancients burned their first born children in blood sacrifice to Molech in the valley known as Gehella (Hell), which abuts the old city now known as Jerusalem- long before Abraham became the father of a nation that worshipped one God who directed his followers to abjure child sacrifice.
Descendants of Molech worshippers now strap bombs to their children and send them as suicide bombers into weddings, schools, kibbutzim, Bar Mitzvah’s, teen night clubs and pizza parlors trhoughout Israel..... and the rest of the world
And I’m sure the dark evil of the universe was called by other names and worshipped before Molech gained his name
satanism did not “begin” in San Francisco in 1966, though that is when it gained official US govt recognition and protection as a “religion”
Gypsies and slave traders.
Satanism as a religion was introduced in 1966 ***
So Satan is only that old? What are you trying to say dude?
If that would only work. They will still want to kill us.
Of course Satan is not 39 years old. We must not confuse the recognition of Satanism as a religion in the U.S. with the existence of Satan, However, reverence for evil ones, like Sadam, is not unique to the Muslim World. We need to condemn this insanity in any form, including giving Satanism “recognition as a religion in the U.S.”, with all of the implications that implies and brings to our culture.
... and in the White House and at CNN, MSNBC, NYT, Washington Compost...
"And got his ass kicked for it twice," I replied. "And executed as a result."
Entire regions of the Middle East are so stunted mentally by ignorance and slavish devotion to a false religion that there is zero hope of them ever pulling themselves out of their self-imposed darkness.
Something like the "object lesson" that Japan experienced may be required.
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