Saddambites

The Saddam Saga continues. Unspooled by the international media, dissected by foreign policy experts and world leaders, consumed by television audiences and newspaper readers, world wide. The defining Face of the Dictator has changed with time and circumstance over the last two years. First there was ‘Saddam, the Defiant’ — expansively smoking a cigar or firing a gun, while defying America to take him on. Then there was ‘Saddam, the Hunted’ — plucked out of a hole in the ground and the subject of a humiliating dental examination by the gloved hands of Washington. Finally, on Thursday, there was ‘Saddam, the Defendant’ — the old defiance inherent in the snatches picked up on microphones: “this is theatre” “the real criminal is Bush”, “Kuwait is part of Iraq”, and — yes —”I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq”.

Of course, how these soundbites, emanating from an Iraqi Special Tribunal at an undisclosed location before an unnamed Iraqi judge, will play out before the world depends on the location of the listener/viewer. Like the Iraqi Occupation itself, the responses so far are completely polarised. The American street is a universe removed from the Arab street. For the commuter in downtown DC, visuals of Saddam Hussein on trial may come as a comforting reminder that this is how civilised nations deal with those they regard as noxious foes. A useful counter to the negativity of the images from Guantanamo Bay, of shackled “enemy combatants” in orange overalls with no rights worth the name. For the coffee drinker in a Damascus cafe, Saddam Hussein on trial could come as a reiteration of Arab humiliation and American arrogance, even as the former dictator’s own statements may prompt a surge of Arab pride.

Here, then, is the classic tussle for hearts and minds. The present president of the United States, hoping to leverage the Saddam visuals to shore up his aura and prospects. The former president of Iraq, after an incarceration of seven months, secured by handcuffs and leg irons, attempting another shy at posterity’s pot. Saddam Hussein — who could possibly face a death sentence under Iraqi law — has nothing to lose. For George W. Bush, in contrast, anxious to sell his case on the Iraq invasion to voters in America, airing Saddam Hussein in this manner remains a gamble.