Jeez... I predicted that Mohammed
Jeez... I predicted that Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf would get more blustery as the situation got more grim. But this is just silly.
He denied certain buildings, such as the al Rashid hotel, were under coalition control.One of the buildings he was asked about was his own Ministry of Information, which reports said had been taken by American forces. Well, nevermind the fact that he's conducting the press conference outside, on some makeshift balcony, away from his building where he usually conducts these jibber-jabber sessions... Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain either."The Americans, they always depend on a method what I call ... stupid, silly. All I ask is check yourself. Do not in fact repeat their lies."
The funniest thing I've seen in the last two weeks was last night: a Fox News embedded reporter was interviewing one of the soldiers who had taken the great square where Saddam parades his troops (you know the one: it's got those two huge swords criss-crossing over the entrances on both sides). He asked the soldier "So, the information minister just got on Arab television and said that American forces hadn't taken the Ministry of Information, and that you aren't in Baghdad. What do you have to say to that?" His reponse: "Well, it's funny he says that because I can see the Ministry of Information building from right here, it's just across the way there."
"They are sick in their minds. They say they brought 65 tanks into center of city. I say to you this talk is not true. This is part of their sick mind," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said. "There is no presence of American infidels in the city of Baghdad at all."There is a point at which the Arab world, which has largely been on the side of Saddam Hussein in all of this, will just feel humiliated. They're going down without any kind of dignity. The more this guy spouts this stuff -- which is so completely verifiably false -- the worse he makes the situation look. This total disconnect from reality is striking because it is so brazenly dismissive of the truth that anyone can verify with his own two eyes. There's no attempt to explain the contradictory facts, just claims that the other side (and all the other news stations, even the Arab ones) is lying. At some point, even for people who are usually irrational, you have to just step back and process that one... and the longer this goes on, the less likely you are to have any faith in the side you were rooting for.
I read someone's comments somewhere that said that what made the rebuilding of Japan and Germany possible was their complete defeat, to the point of humiliation. In this war, it won't be us who delivers the humiliation. We're just setting the stage for it. It's the Iraqi information minister himself that will do the deed.
Posted by Matt at April 7, 2003 1:16 PM
