When Regimes Get the "X" - TIME Magazine Reprises WWII Cover for Saddam

TIME Magazine ^ | April 13, 2003

[HAL9000]

During the first days of May 1945, the world did not quite know what had happened to Adolf Hitler. There was no shortage of rumors: he had been arrested by Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler, he was on a U-boat headed for Japan, he had been killed by an exploding shell. What was known for certain was that Berlin was about to fall, and as TIME reported, "Adolf Hitler had been buried, dead or alive, in the rubble of his collapsing Third Reich." Unsure of what had happened to Hitler but certain that his rule was finished, TIME ran on its cover a portrait of Hitler with a bloody X through it.

World War II and Gulf War II, of course, are very different conflicts, and though some commentators have compared aspects of Saddam's tyranny to Hitler's, the two dictators belong in separate leagues of cruelty and terror. But like Hitler, Saddam became the target of a U.S.-led war, and like Hitler, he had a reign that collapsed before the exact circumstances of his downfall became known.

In Hitler's case, six months had elapsed before a report was issued concluding that he had killed himself. No one knows for sure whether the Iraqi ruler is dead or alive. But this much was clear last week: Saddam Hussein's regime had been "X-ed."

[William McKinley]

the two dictators belong in separate leagues of cruelty and terror

Do they? I am not so sure.

Hitler had the advantage in scope, but that was because he had the means to 'accomplish' more.

Saddam's cruelty, as shown by the child's prison, is pretty much on par.

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[lainde]

bttt

[solzhenitsyn]

I was thinking the same thing. Hitler did nothing that Saddam wouldn't have gladly done, given the opportunity. Where the Jews are concerned, he'd have been delighted to have finished what Hitler started. He is absolutely in the same league.

[DoughtyOne]

I believe we can thank our lucky stars that there is an Israel today, and very few if any Jews live in Iraq. Otherwise I believe we would have seen Hitler incarnate in Saddam Hussein. We already know some of what he did to his own people, let alone the Kurds or the Iranians. Wait until all becomes known. Although I think it discounts what Hitler was, to compare people to him, in Hussein's instance I believe it to be justified.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Good job, TIME!

The lefties will hate it, because by drawing the analogy, it will implicate them as much as Hitler's appeasers.

[geopyg]

I did a google on Jews+iraq and it said 100,000 Jews were in Iraq in 1945, and 100 in 2001. (A magazine the other day siad there were 50 Jews in Iraq - talk about lonely!). It mentioned something about a "pogram" in 1958 or something, and then more persecution in 1968 or so. Anyway - I think that once the stories are told Saddam will get his rightful place in History. Hopefully he's already found his rightful place in Hell.

[butter pecan fan]

Absolutely they are in the same league. Saddam has only lacked in sufficient aid from appeasers.

From: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/891734/posts:

One day Uday brought Latif Yahia [Uday's body double] and others to a meeting with Saddam Hussein at his bombed personal palace, after the Kurdish uprising. Seeing the damage up close so enraged Saddam he ordered his men to bring him prisoners. Troops quickly returned with 30 captured Kurdish rebels. "Saddam shot each one at close range. He emptied clip after clip," says Yahia. "Then he demanded another 60 men and killed them too. Finally he laughed and said he felt better."

[Lawgvr1955]

I guess Time will name him "Man of the Year" like they did Hitler. At least they are consistent.

[Nick Danger]