GF,
My guess is Saddam is going to have staying power outside of Iraq, if at all, but very little inside. It's just a country of 25 million, of which 5 are in Baghdad (in fact, looking at the map, you get the feeling that its population distribution is like that of Washington and Oregon, 95% along the I-5 corridor, 5% elsewhere mostly in trailers and double wides (:^-)), with modern communications and so many relatives of the victims there to tell the tale, I really doubt there is any "cult of Saddam" left to destroy.
One thing about Hitler and fascism, no matter how awful it was, it had ideas and a spokesman who spoke into the (darker) hearts of the people. A deadly cocktail of nationalism, pride and vindictiveness, coupled with the economic and social mismanagement of the time, resulted in the juggernaut which ended up in the world's worst catastrophe.
Like Hitler, Saddam was a megalomaniac and an extraordinary miscalculator. For me, the "Commission, report, etc." idea was to try to give the victims some sense of closure, place on the midlevel members of the regime some sense of responsibility, and let the country go forward without feuds and payback, to the extent possible.
Kb |
