by Coffee Anon
Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003 at 12:30 AM
It was inevitable to read the news anywhere on the net today without being bombarded by ignorent snarling coming from the "Send the Dixie Chicks to Guantanamo" crowd.
Did anyone in the progressive world say the words, "I support Saddam and his regime"? No. Noboby even came remotely close to hinting at it.
Believe me, I searched for those words in every anti-war statement coming out of indymedia and every other progressive media, trying to understand where you people got the idea that we were pro-Saddam.
It is, admittedly, a delicate dance to describe a sentiment that is anti-war, but not "objectively pro-Saddam"(an inaccurate, slanderous term invented by corporate media, anyway). Especially not in neat little soundbites suitable for your short attention spans.
I believe the only criticism we must shoulder here at indymedia was assuming you would "get it", without having to waste so much energy explaining that simple point. I mean, seriously. You all KNOW that nobody in the progressive social justice movement was ever on Saddam's side? None of us actually mourn his capture. It's just upsetting that we have to spell it out for you people.
"We cannot wait...for the mushroom cloud...", and blah, blah, blah was all a lie. We know it, you know it, EVERYBODY KNOWS IT!
It's already been proven that Iraq was disarmed, however sloppily and cruelly by sanctions, and posed no threat to other nations (never mind that we killed hundreds of thousands of civillians in the process).
That put aside, you should understand that the Iraqi civillians we bothered to ask before invading their country wanted to endure and work out regime change on their own time, in their own way. I, for one, believe they had the will to take back their country from any dictatorship without our help. The Bush admin. KNEW we wouldn't be welcomed as liberators, so 9-11 became the serendipitous propaganda springboard.
Not only did they NOT ask us to remove their dictator for them, what they have now is much, much worse. The media whores love pointing out the meager handful of children going back to school as proof of success, but what they don't like admitting is that we bombed many of their schools, threw out all their Saddam-era textbooks, and that no one can go to school now without dodging bullets on the way.
Capturing a deposed Saddam alive was a meaningless accident that Bush will use as a straw-grasping campaign trick. None of his other photo-ops have managed to fool us, but if it were feasible to airlift Saddam to Madison Square Garden, so the emperor could pose before the adoring masses with his boot planted firmly on the vanquished dictator's neck, I'm sure the White House Communications Office would be tempted to do it. I would not be suprised if George W. appears on the stage at next years' debates wearing a t-shirt with Saddam's mugshot on it.