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Saddam's capture: Irrelevant, except for American votersBy Kurt Nimmo, www.smirkingchimp.comDecember 16, 2003 Like Osama running a worldwide terrorist outfit from an isolated cave in Afghanistan, the US and its handpicked puppets in Iraq will attempt to make the case Saddam ran the "insurgency" from an 8x10' dirt hole under a house. "We obviously are thrilled at this [the capture of Saddam], and yes, we consider him the 'head' of the beast and hope his capture demoralizes those resisting coalition troops," a nameless defense official told MSNBC. "But we can't say it's over. There are others out there, and more to this fight than just Saddam." For the occupiers, of course, the resistance is a "beast" they believe can be "demoralized" by the capture of a former dictator who became irrelevant on the day the US invaded. "Do I expect an increase in retaliation?" asked Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. "I don't know, but we're prepared." Retaliation, or resistance regardless of Saddam Hussein? More than anything, the capture of Saddam is for American public consumption. "The arrest of Hussein appears to be fortuitous, coming just in time for the new year -- and the new season for political campaigning in America," writes Christopher Deliso. "The timing could not have been any better for a beleaguered president who had, until yesterday, run out of propaganda stunts in advance of next month's pivotal State of the Union address." If Osama is suddenly captured in the wilds of Pakistan, Karl Rove won't need his customary bag of dirty tricks to get Bush elected -- because if Bush gets Osama, the American people will rush to the polls in November and happily vote for Junior in record numbers... the Republicans won't even need those notorious Diebold computer voting machines. "Enemies of Bush who fear nothing more than the unrestrained indulgences of a second-term president do not want to contemplate a long dark night of foreign intervention and revoked civil liberties," notes Deliso. Well, get used to it because, even without Osama under wraps, Bush will likely "serve" a second term -- by hook or crook, if need be. No way is Howard Dean or General Wes going to win the election, even with Hillary as the VP nominee. No Democrat can compete with Bush now, save a catastrophic development in the Middle East or elsewhere. Expect the Saddam Show Trial this summer, mid-stride of Dem campaigning. As it now stands, estimates on when Saddam will go before a tribunal -- carried, naturally, on TV for American viewers (this thing will be as big or bigger than the OJ trial) -- are anywhere from "very soon, in the next few weeks" (Mouwafak al-Rabii, a handpicked Shi'ite Muslim council member) to "four to six months" (Adnan Pachachi, another Bremer stooge). More than likely, the Saddam Show Trial will begin sometime after the July 1 deadline when the occupation authority supposedly hands over "sovereignty" to a transitional Iraqi government sanctioned by the Bushites. Forget about Saddam being shipped to the United Nations court in The Hague. "It was people inside Iraq who were gassed. The mass graves inside of Iraq are full of Iraqis," said Tony Blair's official spokesman. "It is just that his fate should rest with Iraqis." If Saddam were sent to The Hague, chances are his trial would last as long if not longer than that of Slobodan Milosevic. He would have plenty of time to divulge juicy details about US, British, and European complicity in building his war machine over the years, including weapons of mass destruction, and even the role of the CIA in catapulting the Ba'ath Party to power 40 years ago. Imagine Saddam spilling the beans -- live on TV and translated on the fly. Even the Bush Ministry of Disinformation, aka Fox News, would be obliged to carry the news. No, Saddam will be tried by Iraqi "exiles" and others handpicked by the Bushites, the trial will likely last at most a few weeks, Saddam will not mention the role of the US, and he will be quickly executed. End of story. None of this, of course, will mean squat to those Iraqis resisting US occupation and, after July 1, resisting the so-called transitional Iraqi government arranged by the Bushites. Saddam is seriously irrelevant and his capture, interrogation, show trial, and execution will not take the wind out of the resistance. "We are not fighting for Saddam," a resistance fighter told the Los Angeles Times after Saddam was bagged. It will, though, more than likely help Bush get "re-elected." So long as Iraqis are dying instead of American soldiers in the name of the neocon dream of splintering Arab nationalism into palsied shards and allowing neoliberal vulture capitalism to steal (i.e., "privatize") with impunity, the American people will not care, especially if Bush rolls out a couple more precisely timed video productions that make Americans feel warm and fuzzy about themselves, their unelected president, and pre-emptive colonialism in far away places. More Views
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