Guardian blog contributor: “Saddam: a tribute”
posted at 3:29 pm on November 6, 2006 by Allahpundit
Nothing I can say will prepare you for it. Alaa at the Mesopotamian was practically left speechless.
Here’s a snippet from the middle. Bear in mind that it gets much worse from here:
Saddam would have had his work cut out to match these [death toll] figures. So, why are the Iraqis better off without him? The only answer available is that now they are “free”. Well, we all value freedom. Some value it more than life, and those who do certainly go on about it. Nonetheless, they are probably a minority.
Living under tyranny may not be ideal, but it is not impossible. In the Soviet Union, life took on a character of its own, in which the human spirit managed to flourish in spite of the political constraints. The literature generated in those conditions can still inspire us. Today, many former Soviet citizens feel no more free under the yoke of global capitalism than they did before…
I dub thee, David Cox, the anti-Hitchens.
Blowback
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I dub thee a moron of biblical proportions
Defector01 on November 6, 2006 at 3:29 PM
insufferable idiot! Saying that the Iraqi’s were better off under Saddam is akin to justifying Hitler’s actions by the technological advances made in rocketry.
Sure he killed alot of Jews, but we landed on the moon because of the V-1.
Can the manure get any deeper?
E L Frederick on November 6, 2006 at 3:36 PM
Does he get a card? Or can we just call him an idiot?
Esthier on November 6, 2006 at 3:40 PM
Yeah – only if they challenged his authoritay.
Editor on November 6, 2006 at 3:41 PM
If Mr David Cox happens to be a lawyer he might want to offer Saddam pro bono assistance. What, you say? He then might get shot in a dark alley? Why would that be if Saddam was such a nice man who had no enemies among the population?
Niko on November 6, 2006 at 3:42 PM
The UK government should kill Cox. Sure, such a thing will be harsh for a dissident like Cox, but everyone else will be so much better for it.
frankj on November 6, 2006 at 3:46 PM
Kudos to Mr. Cox! I’m right there with him… all of this “free will” crap sure does make life awfully difficult…
Stay tuned for his next homage in which he lauds Satan for so valiantly standing up to that “bossy” and “heavy-handed” God fellow. I, for one, can’t wait.
thepuke on November 6, 2006 at 3:47 PM
Hmm… WWSD… what would Saddam do…
E L Frederick on November 6, 2006 at 3:49 PM
It always has amazed me those that extort the virtues of Dictators and communist regimes the most are the ones who never lived under their oppression
William Amos on November 6, 2006 at 3:54 PM
BTW to Mr Cox please move to north Korea if you really believe in what you just printed.
William Amos on November 6, 2006 at 3:56 PM
…there was a Garfield cartoon once (in which this fellow could sub for Odie any time):
Garfield goes into a kennel and swings all the cage doors open. “Freedom!”, he cries. There’s a pause during which all the animals look upset. Not one to buck the crowd, Garfield slams all the doors back closed. He shouts “Security!” The animals all look happy.
…so to this clown. Mussolini made the trains run on time. Hitler built the autobahn. Stalin…er…Stalin made…er…drawing a blank there, but there’re plenty of people who miss Ol’ Uncle Joe’s steady hand on the tiller, both in Russian *and* among the faculties of some of the more expensive universities in the States.
Some people view “real” freedom as being “free from worry”, meaning that, however grubby your digs might be, however long you wait in line for the toilet paper ration, you don’t have bills, and you don’t have to save for Junior’s education ’cause the State — Big Daddy — will take care o’ that.
Security!
Puritan1648 on November 6, 2006 at 4:03 PM
I have a friend that lives in Italy, he’s an American. He was interested in the Middle East/Palestinian conflict. His soucres for research were European media. Suprisingly he is now insanely biased against the Jewish “occupation”. He managed to spew all the right Hizbollah talking points on cue with pavlovian accuracy. Mission accomplished Galloway.
Theworldisnotenough on November 6, 2006 at 4:04 PM
My first thought was…what a complete idiot.
My second…How long do we have to wait until Iowahawk has something on this?
John on November 6, 2006 at 4:06 PM
The only thing that surprises me about this tyrant-apologist insanity is why a Leftist pundit took so long to reach this conclusion. Cox may be the first, but he surely won’t be the last.
Spiny Norman on November 6, 2006 at 4:08 PM
Easy stuff to type from the comfort of your computer. What a hypocrite.
SouthernGent on November 6, 2006 at 4:11 PM
Sounds like someone would like to fellate Mr. Hussein?
natesnake on November 6, 2006 at 4:12 PM
The most important quote:
“If Saddam were still in power, he would have stopped this happening. Iraq’s dissidents would have paid a price, but the rest of us would be a lot better off. As he goes to meet the hangman, the world has cause to rue his demise.”
The rest of us would be a lot better off.
At least he’s sparing us the usual leftist pretensions about human rights. He’s flat out saying that he should have turned a blind eye to the torture and murder of Shi-ites and Kurds in Saddam’s Iraq.
Well, good for him. At least he’s playing it straight and acknowledging that not all human life is worth preserving; a lot of it is quite expendable really.
Enrique on November 6, 2006 at 4:16 PM
This is the kind of guy who would praise Castro for Cuba’s health care system.
Mallard T. Drake on November 6, 2006 at 4:22 PM
The beauty of the internet is the bane of the internet—everybody gets to sling it everywhere.
seejanemom on November 6, 2006 at 4:27 PM
If it wasn’t for North Korea, we wouldn’t have all of those wonderful recipies for tree bark. Hey, that which does not kill you…
BohicaTwentyTwo on November 6, 2006 at 4:30 PM
Freedom is so… so… complicated, and harsh.
Won’t someone please take care of me? I feel so alone!
CliffHanger on November 6, 2006 at 4:33 PM
He should be introduced to Cindy Sheehan.. they would fall in love at first puke.
GoodBoy on November 6, 2006 at 4:33 PM
“Give me Liberty, …” or, well, you know… don’t; either way works fine for me.
Just don’t allow me to get killed and I’ll put up with opression, torture, grinding poverty and starvation.
Yep. Proud to be an Free, until my overlords come and take over. Don’t expect me to fight against them, that’d be worse than being opressed.
gekkobear on November 6, 2006 at 4:37 PM
What an oxygen thief. That article is a parody of itself.
spmat on November 6, 2006 at 4:38 PM
Nay, spmat. Master Cox is bravely speaking truth to power.
I commend his plucky spirit.
EFG on November 6, 2006 at 4:48 PM
David Cox is spreading manure by the freight car load.
chsw on November 6, 2006 at 4:55 PM
Cox kind of reminds me of Franz Liebkind, author of “Springtime for Hitler”
A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden, is a musical about Adolf Hitler written by Nazi Franz Liebkind.
Actually, Franz was a much better writer. “Heil myself”
there it is on November 6, 2006 at 4:56 PM
C’mon, he thinks you can actually live in a dictatorship? Does he think that he’d be able to write the tripe he does if he was living in Stalinist Russia? Or in Saddam’s Iraq? Or in any other dictatorship?
What an idiot.
dalewalt on November 6, 2006 at 5:14 PM
He states that there are those who pine for the days of the oppressor. If one hasn’t known freedom and hasn’t had to think/fend for onesself, liberation can be a difficult concept to understand.
Similarly, as David Cox points out, if you have never possessed an ounce of intelligence, then trying to comprehend the liberation of millions of souls from a repressive dictator can be a difficult concept to understand.
Mallard T. Drake on November 6, 2006 at 5:33 PM
This man was never oppressed.
Please, these are the people who call themselves “progressive”.
Never, never should we refer to them as such, without using quotes.
Hard as it is, this doeas leave one speechless.
Entelechy on November 6, 2006 at 5:51 PM
Saddam would have had a hard time matching these figures indeed… he would have had to take alot of vacations so his numbers would have stayed low enough to equal the numbers now.
LordNazh on November 6, 2006 at 6:04 PM
The article is bad enough, but did you read the comments on the article? The number of people who support Cox and think what he said was right is really frightening. These people are so turned-around, they would rather see Bush and Blair hang, while Saddam should get to run Iraq again. Isn’t there something in the bible about people being so full of sin that what is good they call evil and what is evil they call good? Here, among these comments, is the proof that Europe is no longer a place that respects freedom and is certainly no longer an ally of the US.
kemphd on November 6, 2006 at 6:28 PM
Yeah, I remember all of those great writings, poetry and music that flowed from the Soviet Union the last couple of decades. Gulag, the opera, was my favorite. And who could ever forget the lovely ballad of Chernobyl. The dance of the breadlines was creative, and the play “You Don’t Own it, the State Does” was hilarious. Right up there with Saddam’s “tell me or your daughter is raped” reality show.
right2bright on November 6, 2006 at 6:41 PM
.. is it me, or does Cox bear a strong resemblence to Eugene Levy?
yo on November 6, 2006 at 7:05 PM
Have you seen the photo montage RIGHTWINGED assembled at his site. The photo of the dead child is enough to get this mom pissed of enough to kill that bastard with my left Jimmy Choo.
seejanemom on November 6, 2006 at 7:18 PM
Comment is Free and The Guardian online edition is tough to compete against. They have a great graphic designer, and they are way ahead in terms of connecting with people and making a lot of neat things available online. Their site is massive. There are a few conservative commentors that do battle there everyday, and when I mean conservative, I don’t mean TORY, I mean Amecians who log on and make their contributors look like idiots for being so carelessly anti-American. The Guardian is political correctness gone crazy, and practically every single thread there turns into a referendum on George Bush no matter what the original subject is. The UK has an increasing population of people (not just Muslims) who hate Americans. There is nothing positive taught about America in their universities either. Just wait till that generation comes to power. Anyway, I always thought the UK would be an interesting place because that’s where some of my ancestors were from. Don’t bother! It’s a country my ancestors would be ashamed of, and I thank goodness they got on that boat to America. Not all British people dislike Americans, but certainly most of them do. You can’t really blame them on one level, because the propaghanda on the BBC (which they actually have to pay a license for) is so misleading. I mean, they actually think “The Road to Guantanamo” was an authentic portrayal of Guantanamo. They watch too many trashy documentaries and bad programmes leading them to believe that America is ruled by insane Christian Fundamentalists. Don’t let the confident, posh BBC accents full you, their country is populated by a minority of Muslims, ten percent of which sympathize with suicide bombings and there is nothing they can really do about it except deport the radicals, which nobody is really willing to do for fear of being called racist. Anti-Americanism and “the war on climate change” that they always trumpet is more a uniting factor in the UK than the Union Jack, and the concept of the UK itself. It’s all they have. The average Guardian reader thinks flying the Union Jack is a fascist statement. The left there is so beseiged by guilty feelings over its empire, and it hates America’s confidence. Anyway, this is my view of the UK, after having lived there for a while and reading with regularity, what the average Guardianista has to say.
Darrin on November 6, 2006 at 7:19 PM
Have you seen the montage of photos at RIGHTWINGED? Harrowing, for sure. The photo of a dead child can make any mother in Amercia furious enough to kill him with her left Jimmy Choo.
seejanemom on November 6, 2006 at 7:28 PM
I usually hear this sentiment from Republicans. “the Constitution isn’t a suicide pact” and all that jazz.
More freedom and the resulting increase in danger is fit for Iraqis, but not for Americans? No, we’re above that. We’ve evolved past viewing freedom as more valuable than life. We’ve become enlightened to the concept of threat minimization and “necessary” (and wholly temporary — they promise) reductions in freedom. For the public good.
So why, if our concept of our own “free enough” society is the standard, are we not imposing that directly upon the Iraqis? Why not get Welfare and Medicare and 50% taxation rates going from the get-go?
Mark Jaquith on November 6, 2006 at 7:46 PM
I was a freshman at NYU in 1999-2000 when someone came up and wanted me to sign a petition about women in Afghanistan under the taliban. I signed it because I’d sign any petition someone handed me (even if it was a PETA or GreenPeace petition) regardless of if I understood it or even agreed with it. I remember thinking at the time, “People should just leave them alone. We shouldn’t try to force our beliefs on them. Just because they are more conservative than us and have different religious beliefs doesn’t mean we should hassle them about it.” To say I was not well informed on that issue is an understatement.
When I was a junior at NYU 2001-2002, I watched from my dorm room window as the World Trade Center towers collapsed 4 blocks away.
According to Mr. Cox, it doesn’t matter how ‘others’ are living as long as “the rest of us would be a lot better off.” He can’t even claim ignorance (as I could about the Taliban…although that is small comfort to me). He knows what kind of a man Saddam is (soon to be was). He is willing to support him as long as Saddam makes sure not to bug the rest of us.
Well, you can decide that people that are different than you don’t deserve to have decent lives. You can even fool yourself into believing that people who are different than you don’t really want to be free to determine their own path (or perhaps just free to not be raped by Saddam and his sons). The funny thing is that, eventually, it will catch up with you. Whether it is 9/11, 3/11, 7/7 or another day, it has a way of catching up to you.
JadeNYU on November 6, 2006 at 7:52 PM
“The literature generated in those conditions can still inspire us.”
by this guys reasoning i guess hitler should get credit for “the diary of anne frank”.
mfnorman on November 6, 2006 at 8:11 PM
I’d like to convince myself this column is satire, but I know it’s not. The author better get over to North Korea and enjoy their great arts programs before the Dear Leader gets knocked out of power. He should also stop by the Sudan for some poetry readings and cruise through Waziristan for their fabulous interpretive dance performances.
BirdFLU on November 6, 2006 at 8:39 PM
Sheesh, this bastard sure goes out of his way to defend Saddam. Devil’s advocate.
Yakko77 on November 6, 2006 at 9:07 PM
This airbag has obviously never read anything by Ayn Rand. Now, I’m no disciple of the church of objectivity, but Rand knew exactly how to show socialism and despotism for what it was. I seriously recommend “We the Living” to anyone who wants to improve their understanding of life under tyranny.
This cretin’s written diatribe proved Michael Savage right: Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.
Not only has he never suffered under such oppression as he pays tribute to, he hasn’t as much as been in the same neighborhood. Any military person who has visited Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Bahrain, etc. and spoken to a local who managed to get away from Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia or another closed muslim nation could tell him a little. I’ve spoken to numerous expatriat Iraqi shopkeepers who were thrilled to meet an American “GI”, and every single time, they expressed the wish that we had gone and gotten Saddam in ’91.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
People like David Cox don’t understand that in the gulags you have perfect security. All you have to do is whatever you’re told. People want freedom, and freedom has never been free.
Freelancer on November 6, 2006 at 9:59 PM
I guess if the American “occupation” had been totally brutal, had we killed whole populations that opposed us, and had we allowed only state propaganda to be printed or broadcast in America, we would have been more like Saddam and therefor met the approval of Mr. Cox. Democracy?
No! Kill Saddam, kill his whole tribe. Suppress the Sunnis horribly. Allowed only puppets among the Kurds and Shiites. Exterminated hundreds of thousands just to set an example. Rounded up and kill thousands of “journalists” like Cox. Nationalized all media in the US and killed all who opposed. Allowed only favorable reports in the “Media” Have an election where 99.8% of the people in Dade County vote for Bush. I guess that would have been “OK” for Mr. Cox.
After all, more people would have died had he not nuked Berkeley.
George Bruce on November 7, 2006 at 12:06 AM
PS
I can see the bumper stickers now
“WWSD”
George Bruce on November 7, 2006 at 12:07 AM
PSS
I have another idea. Since Cox is willing to sacrifice untold numbers of “dissidents”, why not sacrifice the Guardian and all its readers for the greater good? After all, it would be a more peaceful world once they, and all who think like them, are gone. It would be for the greater good.
George Bruce on November 7, 2006 at 12:16 AM
PSSS
We would then have the Peace of Saddam……………….
George Bruce on November 7, 2006 at 12:20 AM
PSSSS
MTPOSBUY, (May The Peace Of Saddam Be Upon You)
George Bruce on November 7, 2006 at 12:22 AM
Within the Third Reich itself, a secular state offered Aryans opportunities unimaginable in nearby countries, and provided a standard of living far from unreasonable by the standards of the developed world.
Three objections were made to this state of affairs.
The first was that Hitler had expansionist ambitions. His annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 was, however, rooted in a long-standing territorial claim based on the fact that Czechoslovakia had been part of the Austrian Empire under the Habsburgs and was only hived off by the Treaty of Versailles.
The second objection was that Hitler was developing weapons of mass destruction. Had he acquired nuclear weapons, this might have proved a useful check on the Soviet Union’s ambitions.
The final objection to Hitler’s rule, on which more and more weight has necessarily had to be placed by those responsible for his downfall, is that he abused the human rights of German citizens. Quite clearly he did. Yet, why should it be assumed that this consideration trumps all others?
Living under tyranny may not be ideal, but it is not impossible. Hitler offered his people a harsh deal. Yet, their lives were at risk only if they chose to challenge his authority (or were Jews).
Free Kurdistan on November 7, 2006 at 12:58 AM
Sounds like he’s working on a new movie title. What’s it called… Baghdad on the Hudson? Moscow on the Tigris? (Mixed on the metaphor?)
RD on November 7, 2006 at 2:09 AM
Amen. Ideally we shouldn’t refer to them as “liberal” either, but I may be losing that battle… ;-/
RD on November 7, 2006 at 2:36 AM
Free Kurdistan,
Touche…
Freelancer on November 7, 2006 at 2:36 AM
As appalling as Cox’s article is, we have to realise that there will never be an American-style democracy on Arab land. Well, at least not in the foreseeable future. It is just not their culture. What we now have in Iraq, is rapidly rising Islamic extremism. It could not have prospered in Saddam’s Iraq, but it has fertile ground now. We have traded Saddam’s dictatorship for Islamic extremism and a stronger Iran. This is the blunt truth whether we like it or not.
MoonbatMedia on November 7, 2006 at 6:01 AM