Word: saddamism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...calligraphy was based on Saddam Hussein's own handwriting, and for many who suffered most under his iron fist - especially the Kurds - the flag came to symbolize his repressive rule. As I look at the Iraqi flag hanging on the wall in my office in New York, I can understand their resentment. Even holy words can seem profane when they are uttered (or, in this case, written) by the embodiment of evil...
...April 10, 2003, the day after Baghdad fell. Late in the afternoon, I made my way to Saddam's main palace in the city: There had been some silly rumors that the Americans were preparing to blast it into rubble. I found a small group of American soldiers combing through the vast palace (it would later house the U.S. embassy), looking for documents. Many Iraqis - who were never allowed near the palace during Saddam's reign - had gathered at the main entrance. Many were there out of idle curiosity, and some were cheering the Americans...
Common ground has been so hard to find between Iraq's Shi'ites and Sunnis that the U.S. will take accord wherever it can. Hence the strange sight of the White House applauding a new law that would help members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party get jobs and benefits that the U.S. had stripped from them in 2003. On Jan. 12, lawmakers in Baghdad passed legislation that would give midlevel bureaucrats who worked for the former regime a shot at government jobs, and Baathist retirees with a clean record a chance to collect pensions...
...Iraq, the Administration has spent billions propping up an Iraqi government whose leaders take many of their cues from Tehran. Threats of possible U.S. military action against Iran have given President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a scapegoat, helping him maintain power by stirring nationalist solidarity. And the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, combined with the decline in U.S. influence in the region, has created a void that Iran has exploited to spread its influence...
...other gulf states. Such a strategy is rooted in the cold war mantra that even if a regime was a "son of a bitch," it should be supported as long as it was "our son of a bitch." It doesn't work. Washington supported both Osama bin Laden and Saddam in the 1980s on precisely this logic, but after 9/11, Bush himself acknowledged that coddling the enemies of our enemies had not made them friends; instead it had helped sow more extremism. And today Arab governments can no longer be bought by a single bidder. Avoiding too close an association...