HOME	Where the World's Views of America Come into Focus

May 22, 2005

EDITORIAL

Original Article (English)

The Sun is Britain’s biggest selling newspaper and its most notorious tabloid. The tabloid’s decision to publish photographs of Saddam Hussein, one of which shows the former Iraqi dictator wearing only white underpants, was defended by managing editor Graham Dudman who said in an interview with the BBC: People seem to forget that this is a man who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children and all that’s happened to him is that someone has taken his picture. The Sun also published photographs of Ali Hassan Al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, dubbed Mrs. Anthrax.

The American military, which is holding Saddam Hussein at an undisclosed location in Iraq, has been caught on the back foot once again. It is now trying to explain how these illicit photographs ended up in the Sun’s grubby hands. A statement from the U.S. military said it was disappointed at the possibility that someone responsible for the security, welfare, and detention of Saddam would take and provide these photos for public release.

President Bush, meanwhile, said he didn’t think the photos would encourage insurgents in Iraq. “I don t think a photo inspires murderers. I think they’re inspired by an ideology that’s so barbaric and backward that it’s hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think.”

President Bush’s comments are revealing. Here is an international leader who is presiding over a regime (his own) that stands accused of torture, brutality and murder in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The invasion of Iraq was predicated on the grounds that Saddam Hussein had provided support for al-Qaeda, had weapons of mass destruction and in some way was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

It is now transparently clear that the three main reasons for invading Iraq never had any substance. Any sign of remorse from the neo-con lunatics in Washington that they were wrong on all counts?

In most countries a 100% failure rate is regarded as a distinct setback. President Bush’s remarks and those of the aptly named Dudman reflect a complete lack of understanding of attitudes in the Arab and Islamic world. Saddam may have been a brutal tyrant, but publishing humiliating photographs of him is doing the West no favor. Most Arabs already regard the West as barbaric and backward as a consequence of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and now Bagram. These photographs of Saddam will simply help to confirm that belief.