In Iraq, over the years, Saddam Hussein has angered his neighbors and his fellow Iraqi’s. The Syrians condemned him to hell sometime in the 1970’s. The Iranians have no use for him because of his war in the 1980’s against them. The Kuwaitis have his invasion of 1991 fresh in their minds. Turkey has never had a “Welcome Saddam” day. Nor has Jordan. In Iraq, Saddam used chemical weapons on the Kurds who make up a large minority in Iraq. And the Shiites regard him, as a Sunni, as their enemy.
So now with his country in ruins and his neighbors all hostile, Saddam has no place to hide or no place that will give him a welcome of any sort.
In the United States, Bush, backed somewhat in desperation by his co-fundamentalist religious leader in Britain, Tony Blair, has angered his neighbors in Canada and Mexico, Central and South America, the Far East, France, Germany and Russia. His “coalition” partners in the Security Counsel were Bulgaria and Spain, a couple of genuine heavyweights.
When he assumed office, he said that no international relationship was as important to the United States as Mexico. This year, he largely cancelled the Cinco de Mayo festivities. And in a fit of pique and childishness, when he attends a conference called by Jacque Chirac in Evian, France, in a month or so, Bush will sleep across the border in Switzerland. Take that, you Brie eating frogs.
So Saddam and Bush have become the pariahs of the world. Saddam, if alive, is holed up somewhere, perhaps in Baghdad. And Bush is reduced to talking to the American Enterprise outfit, a right wing conservative crowd, and addressing soldiers under military discipline to listen to him.
And Bush and Blair proudly proclaim that God leads them and that their version of God oversees their lives. To which I say as a 75 year non-believer, “Let us pray.”
With Bush and Saddam confined to their home territories, in effect home bodies, perhaps they will seek each other out to exchange tales of misery. On the other hand, Tony Blair, ordinarily called Bush’s poodle or lap dog in Europe and in his own country, may arrange for a tearful reconciliation with Saddam. It could be that those two will convert Saddam into a Bible thumping Pentecostal Nazarene Evangelist. Even for those who do not believe in prayer, perhaps this would be a good time to pray.
E. E. CARR
May 9, 2003
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Sorry for the delay in essays! Have been traveling.
Man, I had forgotten how much of a screwup Blair was. The bar for UK PM is pretty low these days, huh.