Babylon continues to burn

Americans spark yet more international furor over Saddam execution

ANDREW LODGE STAFF

“He was very very broken . . . he looked very weak.” So said a witness as recorded on the newswire and reported in newspapers and online news services worldwide. They were, of course, talking about Saddam Hussein, the heinous former tyrant of Iraq, murderer of thousands, and past friend and benefactor of the U.S. and its corporate friends.

Perversity hits new levels as the U.S. and Britain gloat over this deadly man’s death, even as they, at the same time, leave Babylon so absolutely levelled, so completely ruined that the few journalists actually courageous enough to venture out of the American fortress cutely named the “Green Zone” have difficulty finding words to describe the horror and the chaos, far worse a situation than the fears of even the staunchest anti-war critics. If “justice is done,” as the commanderin- chief George Bush grandly pronounced following news of the tyrant’s demise, it is a bitter justice indeed for the Iraqi people. A justice with bombedout houses and bombed-out roads, a justice with gutted hospitals and schools turned into ammunition dumps, a justice so deadly as to make this previously safe country (according to United Nations reports) into the most dangerous in the world.

In executing Saddam, the U.S. managed the near-impossible. They galvanized support behind one of the most despicable and least-liked tyrants on the planet. Even here in India, where the majority of folks feel no special bond and certainly hold no love for the man, outrage was the dominant reaction amongst Hindus and Muslims alike. “Illegal and criminal act” of “an imperialist occupying power” which has “no right to violate national sovereignty and dispense justice on those whom they have illegally overthrown,” was the quote from one of India’s ruling parties in the Sunday Times of India, the premiere English language publication in this country. Graffiti popped up denouncing the American act with disgust. All this in westernfriendly India. One can only imagine the reaction in the Middle East.

In Europe, the mild-mannered Scandinavian governments were quick to publicly denounce the act. The Vatican issued a statement spelling out its condemnation. The South Africans joined a chorus of African voices expressing displeasure and concern with the entire situation. Around the world there were outright

America and her allies pretend that the country and its laughable leader are still respected and heeded on the world stage, but the reality is that without the almighty dollar and a wickedly oversized arsenal of weaponry, there is no legitimacy.

criticisms — of the process, of the outcome, of the American presence and meddling in Iraq in general. Only a choice few American friends offered their support along with — get this — the Iranians, proving that all it takes is an execution for the head-butting between Tehran and Washington to stop. Now this is something to build on.

It’s hard to believe how things could go so wrong for the empire. Here was supposed to be the golden age. The Soviet Union, gone. Hegemony intact. Even the horror of 9-11 helped as it won the richest country in the world a great deal of global sympathy, one of the few things, one could have argued, they had previously lacked.

Instead, global opinion of the lone superpower has never been so low. The fact that people openly and seriously debate whether Iraq is better now or with Saddam makes the whole thing farcical. When the bar is so low that one even has to consider whether a hopelessly inept and brutal dictator was better at running the country, you know you’re in bad shape.

When world leaders like Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez criticize the U.S. at the United Nations, which happened recently at the UN’s 60th General Assembly, everyone listens, and the applause is genuine and loud. However crazy these men are portrayed in North America, the developing world, because of its positioning, accords these men a certain grudging respect. It would be a mistake to understand such cheers at the UN as pro-Iranian or pro-Venezuelan or pro-whatever; certainly that element may be present, but more than that, the African leaders, the Latin American leaders, the Asian leaders are cheering on the chutzpah of those with the courage to put the bully in its place. America and her allies pretend that the country and its laughable leader are still respected and heeded on the world stage, but the reality is that without the almighty dollar and a wickedly oversized arsenal of weaponry, there is no legitimacy.

America is not held up the world over as the bastion of freedom she believes herself to be. No one sees it as a defender of justice. It is seen as an arrogant nation, and one that does what it wants and takes what it wants, far from the purveyor of civilization, the view it trumpets from its multitude of propaganda stations.

In a sense, it’s not surprising. Empires have always been guilty of some form of hubris or another. But watching the American reaction to Saddam’s demise was nonetheless a stark reminder of the severely pathological nature of the imperial project.

Andrew Lodge si the Manitoban's features reporter and a fourth-year medical student, currently studying in India.