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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (71792)	2/6/2003 1:05:11 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I think it's time to deconstruct Saddam in a very up-to-the-minute po-mo way. He must be viewed through the lens of his own culture, a culture that punishes weakness and extols bravery and the image of the iconic warrior. He is simply part of an environment which has shaped him. Many valuable insights may be gained by a textured examination of the outward symbols surrounding his persona. I think that a valuable place in which to start is the symbolic currency presented by various palaces he has built. They are clearly Saddam's attempts to communicate his angst at the various catastrophes that have stricken his beloved country, a way to etch in marble, concrete, and glass his aspirations for a better future for his countrymen. An example of how all Iraqis could and should live. An aspirational symbol, if you will. Saddam's obsessions with missiles and guns, is unfortunately suggestive of a fetishistic obsession with his phallus--note that every photo of an armed Saddam shows him with a rifle or a pistol pointed upwards, shooting them upwards into the sky--but there is more to it than such a simplistic view. The poses are obviously representational of his feeling that he is the national father figure, the protector not only of all Iraqi citizens but of the collective Iraqi unconscious which has been damaged (castrated) by the machinations of foreign powers, particularly those of the US. The shots fired upwards into crowds are simply the representation of renewed vigor, the discarding of chains. The old video of Saddam swimming in a river to demonstrate his virility is also emblematic of the strong interplay between the sexual, patriarchical, and family-driven urges Saddam's armed poses typify. There is an important racial component to Saddam's rebellion against the West. His is a defensive and offensive action designed to establish the equality that all races have in the possibility of creating and fostering brutality. In the case of the ME, and specifically Saddam, this brutality must ineluctably become real and concrete, on a par with the West's, and it must be actualized against the West in order that Saddam's commendable dreams of racial harmony be actualized. The balancing of brutality in the name of racial harmony requires swift, clinical brutality, a laudable goal which Saddam has tried to achieve by pursuing his nuclear efforts. While some may think that nuclear weapons are brutal, the fact that they kill instantaneously and painlessly is a brilliant insight that Saddam has achieved. In a word or two, his brutality is designed to be painless and swift. While at times seemingly extreme, Saddam's actions simply represent the accelerated means of achieving this harmony of violence that will lead to peace. In the short term, some may think his actions are execrable. By being short-lived and painless, his brutality is the soul of temperance and is ultimately compassionate. It will end in a period of golden peace once the balance of brutality has been reached. Now that we can discern the reality behind Saddam, it is difficult to think of him as a simpleton. The French have obviously captured these insights and are implementing them into their foreign policy. One can only hope that a similarly finer-textured, nuanced American policy toward Saddam will develop.

To: JohnM who wrote (71792)	2/6/2003 4:13:38 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

John, there is another way one can look at Mary McGroy's comments.... I see her words just as you do...same words. BUT different meaning. >>>>>>>>I wasn't so sure about the al Qaeda connection. But I had heard enough to know that Saddam Hussein, with his stockpiles of nerve gas and death-dealing chemicals, is more of a menace than I had thought. I'm not ready for war yet. *But Colin Powell has convinced me that it might be the only way to stop a fiend,* and that if we do go, there is reason. Your interpretation was: I wasn't so sure about the al Qaeda connection. But I had heard enough to know that Saddam Hussein, with his stockpiles of nerve gas and death-dealing chemicals, is more of a menace than I had thought. I'm not ready for war yet.** But Colin Powell has convinced me that it might be the only way to stop a fiend, and that if we do go, there is reason.