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Journalism of Courage
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 8216;Saddam, the Defiant8217; 8212; expansively smoking a cigar or firing a gun, while defying America to take him on. Then there was 8216;Saddam, the Hunted8217; 8212; 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 8216;Saddam, the Defendant8217; 8212; the old defiance inherent in the snatches picked up on microphones: 8220;this is theatre8221; 8220;the real criminal is Bush8221;, 8220;Kuwait is part of Iraq8221;, and 8212; yes 8212;8221;I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq8221;.
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 8220;enemy combatants8221; 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 dictator8217;s own statements may prompt a surge of Arab pride.
