| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
The Brothers Finally Get Shown Up
"Although Uday and Qusay are criminals, displaying their
corpses like this is disgusting and repulsive. America claims it
is civilized, but is behaving like a thug." --- Saad Brikan, Saudi
civil servant, venting to the media in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Well, at least this guy understands that the Hussein boys
were seriously bad news. Beyond that, however, as is typical of
Middle Eastern public opinion, he quickly parts ways with
rationality. But then, that there are great masses of deeply
irrational people in the Middle East is about as flabbergasting
as the presence of sand fleas in the Sahara.
If you want to hear every excuse in the book for why the dead
bodies of Uday and Qusay should not have been shown in
public, peruse the media for Arab opinion for about five
minutes. You'll either laugh or you'll cry--or both. And then
you'll beat your head against the wall at the seeming
impossibility of ever reasoning with these people and bringing
them out of the dark ages.
But let's go through the reasoning one more time just for the
sake of thoroughness and as a gesture of good will. The reason
the dead bodies were shown was NOT to shock, insult or offend
the ever-so-delicate sensibilities of the Arab world. They were
shown simply to try and convince a bamboozled and
understandably frightened Iraqi populace that Uday and
Qusay are really, honestly and truly dead and they need not be
feared any longer. Otherwise, not one Iraqi in a million
believes they're dead. And that's it, end of story.
But you just can't convince some people, even when you're in
the midst of ending one of the most horrific regimes in human
history. Take Hasan Hammoud, for instance, yet another
Saudi civil servant (Is there any other occupation in that
country?) who managed to get himself interviewed by the
media: "America always spoils its image by doing something
like this. What is the advantage of showing these bodies?
Didn't they think about . . . their mother and the rest of their
family when they see these images?"
To tell you the truth, Hasan, no, they weren't worried about
family members. See, these aren't the Cleavers we're talking
about. The worst thing Wally and the Beav ever did was play
hooky or maybe break a neighbor's window with a stray
baseball. Hussein family members are used to a lot worse
considering the appalling atrocities that were committed by
the "Brothers Grim." If they've been able to live with that, then
they'll survive this, too.
If you want to get some idea of just how bad to the bone these
brothers were, especially Uday, then try and wrap your mind
around this. According to Uday's chief executioner, who has
recently spoken out, beheadings were as routine at Uday's
compound/maniacal-chamber-of-horrors as mowing the grass
is for most of us. In fact, once, on a busy day, there were 36
total, including a pregnant woman.
Or how about the time he ordered two 19-year-old students
to be fed to the lions that were kept in a cage on his compound.
Their crime? They had competed with Uday where some young
ladies were concerned. So for that, their fate was to be torn
apart and eaten alive by wild beasts.
Now, doesn't it make logical sense that the Iraqi people, who
have suffered under this nightmare regime for so long, deserve
to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that these guys are
finally taking the dirt naps they so richly deserve?
But nothing's going to soften the opinion of someone like
Mohammad Emara, an Egyptian Islamist scholar, who said,
"Under Islamic law this is rejected. America wanted to boost
the morale of its soldiers so it resorted to this illegal act which
is denounced by all religions."
Now there's a hoot. Since when does Islam care about "all
religions?" Since when, under Islam, are followers of other
religions anything other than contemptible infidels deserving
of banishment or extermination?
You can cull the media for such pixilated blather all day
long and never run out. Frankly, it all just makes you want to
stand up and holler: Hey! Arab world! Will you please wake
up and get a clue? Will you stop carping and yapping like
disgruntled Chihuahuas about American actions long enough
to absorb the fact that monumental evil is being dismantled in
Iraq, all for the betterment of the Middle East and,
concomitantly, the world?
If only . . .
"Although Uday and Qusay are criminals, displaying their
corpses like this is disgusting and repulsive. America claims it
is civilized, but is behaving like a thug." --- Saad Brikan, Saudi
civil servant, venting to the media in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Well, at least this guy understands that the Hussein boys
were seriously bad news. Beyond that, however, as is typical of
Middle Eastern public opinion, he quickly parts ways with
rationality. But then, that there are great masses of deeply
irrational people in the Middle East is about as flabbergasting
as the presence of sand fleas in the Sahara.
If you want to hear every excuse in the book for why the dead
bodies of Uday and Qusay should not have been shown in
public, peruse the media for Arab opinion for about five
minutes. You'll either laugh or you'll cry--or both. And then
you'll beat your head against the wall at the seeming
impossibility of ever reasoning with these people and bringing
them out of the dark ages.
But let's go through the reasoning one more time just for the
sake of thoroughness and as a gesture of good will. The reason
the dead bodies were shown was NOT to shock, insult or offend
the ever-so-delicate sensibilities of the Arab world. They were
shown simply to try and convince a bamboozled and
understandably frightened Iraqi populace that Uday and
Qusay are really, honestly and truly dead and they need not be
feared any longer. Otherwise, not one Iraqi in a million
believes they're dead. And that's it, end of story.
But you just can't convince some people, even when you're in
the midst of ending one of the most horrific regimes in human
history. Take Hasan Hammoud, for instance, yet another
Saudi civil servant (Is there any other occupation in that
country?) who managed to get himself interviewed by the
media: "America always spoils its image by doing something
like this. What is the advantage of showing these bodies?
Didn't they think about . . . their mother and the rest of their
family when they see these images?"
To tell you the truth, Hasan, no, they weren't worried about
family members. See, these aren't the Cleavers we're talking
about. The worst thing Wally and the Beav ever did was play
hooky or maybe break a neighbor's window with a stray
baseball. Hussein family members are used to a lot worse
considering the appalling atrocities that were committed by
the "Brothers Grim." If they've been able to live with that, then
they'll survive this, too.
If you want to get some idea of just how bad to the bone these
brothers were, especially Uday, then try and wrap your mind
around this. According to Uday's chief executioner, who has
recently spoken out, beheadings were as routine at Uday's
compound/maniacal-chamber-of-horrors as mowing the grass
is for most of us. In fact, once, on a busy day, there were 36
total, including a pregnant woman.
Or how about the time he ordered two 19-year-old students
to be fed to the lions that were kept in a cage on his compound.
Their crime? They had competed with Uday where some young
ladies were concerned. So for that, their fate was to be torn
apart and eaten alive by wild beasts.
Now, doesn't it make logical sense that the Iraqi people, who
have suffered under this nightmare regime for so long, deserve
to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that these guys are
finally taking the dirt naps they so richly deserve?
But nothing's going to soften the opinion of someone like
Mohammad Emara, an Egyptian Islamist scholar, who said,
"Under Islamic law this is rejected. America wanted to boost
the morale of its soldiers so it resorted to this illegal act which
is denounced by all religions."
Now there's a hoot. Since when does Islam care about "all
religions?" Since when, under Islam, are followers of other
religions anything other than contemptible infidels deserving
of banishment or extermination?
You can cull the media for such pixilated blather all day
long and never run out. Frankly, it all just makes you want to
stand up and holler: Hey! Arab world! Will you please wake
up and get a clue? Will you stop carping and yapping like
disgruntled Chihuahuas about American actions long enough
to absorb the fact that monumental evil is being dismantled in
Iraq, all for the betterment of the Middle East and,
concomitantly, the world?
If only . . .