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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (428707)	7/17/2003 7:24:02 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769670

<font color=red>"If my finger was a Baathist, I'd cut it off," reads one spray-painted slogan. "Death to the Baath," proclaims another.</font> Iraqis Cheer Fall of Baath on Anniversary of Coup Thu Jul 17, 9:25 AM ET Reuters By Miral Fahmy BAGHDAD (Reuters) - For decades Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Baath Party held lavish celebrations every July 17 to mark the anniversary of the 1968 coup that brought them to power. No speeches and no fanfare rang out in Baghdad on Thursday as Iraqis ignored the 35th anniversary. The broadcast by an Arab TV station of a new tape purportedly of Saddam's voice, marking the anniversary, brought anger and derision on the street. "This is the best July 17th I've seen so far because there is no Saddam and no Baath," said Fadil Amin, an out-of-work translator. "We're better off without them, even if we don't have any electrical power or water and security is abysmal." The Baathists ruled largely by fear. But on past July 17s the party faithful used to try a softer approach, distributing sweets and staging shows where singers and poets sang Saddam's praises. Baghdad's youth were rounded up at the party headquarters to take part in "spontaneous" rallies where they pledged allegiance to the leader. Cake and sherbets were distributed -- luxuries to many Iraqis impoverished by years of U.N. sanctions. Children born on the anniversary received money and gifts. "We used to chant 'We will sacrifice our blood and souls for you Saddam' and sing songs calling him our father," recalled 21-year-old laborer Baha Kerou. "You had to go to these demonstrations or else they would threaten to fail you in your exams or throw you in jail for a few days, so we all went. Thank God they are gone," he added. "DEATH TO BAATH" The audio tape of "Saddam" was broadcast by the Arabic satellite television station Al Arabiya on Thursday. It won little applause on the streets of Baghdad. "Saddam's saying what he's saying because he is weak and a failure," said Sayed al-Baaj. "Allah has got rid of him and his Baathists forever and there is no way they are coming back." Money changer Jassem Mohammed agreed. "The whole Iraqi people were against Saddam. He oppressed us... and now we've been liberated." Perhaps no one in Baghdad was happier to see the April overthrow of Saddam and the Baath as the residents of the teeming Sadr City slum. Graffiti denouncing Baathists covers many walls in the area once known as Saddam City. Squatters and local Muslim clerics have taken over the party's two main headquarters. "If my finger was a Baathist, I'd cut it off," reads one spray-painted slogan. "Death to the Baath," proclaims another. The mainly Shi'ite population of the area suffered bitterly under the Baath administration, which discriminated against them and brutally quashed uprisings in the 1990s. Residents say almost all of them have lost a relative to Saddam or his Baathists and the desire for revenge runs deep. Sayyid Baqer al-Mubarqa'ah, cleric at the Ghadah mosque in Sadr City, said he had advised the area's Baathists to publicly repent, promising they would be forgiven, but added that most refused to come out of hiding. "If only the Baathists had celebrated Islamic festivals with as much fervor as they celebrated July 17, then maybe, just maybe Allah would have kept them in power," he joked. "But they never cared what people wanted or respected their religious beliefs."