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Saddam's
Merry Dance Cannot Hide the Sad Inevitability of Events
by
Robert Fisk
The lndependent/UK
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to Alternative Reader Index
How
seriously they took the Baghdad theatricals. "A resounding 'no' from the
Iraqi parliament,'' was the headline on NBC's local affiliate here in North
Carolina. "Assembly in Baghdad shows its outrage,'' was the headline in USA
Today. As if the Iraqi parliament was really a parliament, as if Saddam
Hussein's recent 100 per cent vote was not a fiction.
"US
officials'' – those all-purpose sources for lazy journalists – were quickly
on hand to suggest that this was "posturing''. I really needed a "US
official" to tell me that. But I began to wonder, given the po-faced
reporting and the presentation of Iraqi news here, if the naive world of Saddam
and the naive world of America don't sometimes connect. It's as if Saddam knows
this nonsense is taken seriously. Hitler was a tyrant and Saddam is a tyrant.
But Hitler wasn't a clown.
Of
course, the Iraqi parliament's vote doesn't mean a thing. Two hundred and fifty
senators rejecting UN arms inspections and then allowing the "wise
leadership'' of Saddam to make the final decision is about as serious as an
Egyptian television serial (Egyptian serials are all about families in crisis
and Saddam is addicted to them). Mr Salim al-Kubaisi's remark – he is the head
of the "Iraqi parliament's Arab and International Relations Committee"
took the biscuit. Parliament, he announced, had full confidence in Saddam's
"great ability to assess the situation'' and commended the Leader's
"deep vision''. This was the vision, remember, that gave us the Iran-Iraq
war (one million dead) and the invasion of Kuwait.
Then
we have the leader's beloved son Uday – still bearing the scars of his
assassination attempt – who intervened on the side of inspections. He thought
the UN inspectors should be accepted into Iraq (which means Saddam agrees) but
there should be some Arabs among the inspectorate.
This
is not the first time we have heard that. Several Arab states have suggested the
same thing though I don't think Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, is going
to be adding Saudi scientists to his team. The real Iraqi fear is that the CIA
will use the UN inspectors – just as they did before – and that the
inspectors, far from searching for weapons of mass destruction, will be
fingering sites for bombardment if/when America decides to invade.
But
it's back to the old story. Saddam is going to run this one up to the wire on
Friday at which point his "wisdom" and "vision" will prevail
and the UN inspectors will be welcome and the American media will say – just a
guess – "Back from the brink''. Oh, yes Saddam understands how to play
the clown. And with each circus act, he makes the Americans look just that
little bit more silly. A dangerous trick to play right now.
A
US Marines officer came up to me after I gave a lecture at the University of
North Carolina last night to tell me he was departing from his young wife and
child in three days' time to go to Central Command in Tampa for the start of a
longer journey. It's the same all over America. Just down from here at Fort
Bragg, elements of the 82nd Airborne are said to be on the move.
A
vast American armada is slowly taking shape – huge quantities of armour and
ordnance are being moved around the world right now from the United States –
and most of America doesn't even know it. "See you there,'' I said to the
marine last night as we parted company. "Oh, are you coming to Central
Command?'' he asked innocently. "No," I told him, "You're going
to Iraq."
©
2002 lndependent Digital (UK) Ltd
November 13, 2002
Bulatlat.com
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