Kirk Parker sent us a link to this MEMRI video. It was originally shown on Al-Jazeera in Qatar on January 2nd, and MEMRI has provided the subtitles in English.
The program’s intent is to present a debate about Saddam Hussein between the owner of AI-Zawraa TV, Iraqi MP Mish’an AI-Jabouri, and Iraqi Journalist Sadeq Al-Musawi. But the discussion quickly gets out of hand, and makes “The O’Reilly Factor” look like a Sunday School discussion by comparison.
One of the two men is a Sunni supporter of Saddam, and the other is an Iraqi Shiite. They are unable to contain their rage even for a minute, and the program’s host seems completely unprepared for the free-for-all that develops.
Free speech in Iraq has been suppressed for centuries by despots. Now that it’s finally emerging, it’s not always a pretty sight.
And you can see why the rulers of Iraq wanted to suppress it in the first place: when it comes to the Sunnis and the Shiites, virtually all words are fighting words.
[Nothing follows]
To me, the striking thing was not the mere exhibition of hostility. Heck, you might end up with similar hysterics if you put Amanda Marcotte and noted Catholic pugilist Patrick Buchanan together in an American TV studio.
No, what really impressed me was when Al-Jabouri’s vehement Sadaam may have been a [murderous] asshole, but he was our asshole attitude.
Sadaam is now a martyr to his former victims? An imam for the heroic resistance fighters?
Saddam killed Al-Jabouri’s brother and several of his relatives, and still Saddam is a hero?? What’s wrong with these people?
Apparently al-Jabba runs a sunni propaganda tv-station operating out of Syria.
One really wonders about the mentality of these Arabs. They’re unbelievable.
If I didn’t know better I would have though it was a joke, and a pretty funny one, at that.
The pole question was a stupid one to begin with. It should have been 2 questions.
1. Do you think Saddam should have been executed.
2. Can you support the way it was done.
Its often that way with poles. They mix things together and become pretty useless for their supposed purpose. They instead become a tool of manipulation.
You Persian shoe!