Saddam--U.S. Stooge?

Muslim, progressive, and Zionist agreement on an issue should be an occasion for raised eyebrows. The recent execution of President Saddam Hussein and the celebrations of a “dictator meeting his just deserts” were such an occasion. And the Zionist media’s characterization of the Iraqi President as American stooge was quickly adapted and parroted by Muslims and progressives. Cozy.

The question is: How does one become an American stooge?

• By defying U.S./U.N. sanctions for a decade, ensuring decent healthcare, education, electricity, and clean water for the Iraqi people against overwhelming odds for that hellish period which we all seem to have forgotten?
  
  
• By providing free housing to the burgeoning population of Palestinian refugees then in Iraq?
  
  
• By honoring Palestinian freedom fighters with streets named in their remembrance?
  
  
• By helping widows and orphans living in the squalor of Palestinian refugee camps more than any other Arab ruler?
  
  
• By refusing to accept offers of political asylum, and remaining in Iraq after the invasion, to fight the imperialists to the death?
  

There is no shortage of stooges in the Muslim world, but I dare say Saddam, who died saying kalima, was not one of them. I am amazed and saddened that Muslims/progressives have adapted the corporate media refrain on Saddam: “He was America’s man.” Even after the destruction of Iraq, Muslims are regurgitating the official line of the party complicit in its destruction. We have, once again, failed to recognize wartime propaganda. Goebbels—no Wolfowitz—would be proud.

I do not doubt that Saddam made a grievous error in allowing himself to be used by the imperialists, during the Iraq-Iran war—an error for which, he will no doubt answer to Allah (AWJ). And yet, which national leader—Muslim or non—has not erred in their political life? The current discourse almost makes one believe that Saddam's reign ended with the Iran-Iraq war, and that he was somehow incapacitated from participation on the world stage thereafter. Accordingly, the man is tried in the realm of our imaginations only for actions he took decades ago. And the entire sanctions period has vanished from our minds.

The claim that Saddam was a U.S. stooge brings to mind similar Western claims of "blowback." The idea seems to be that any actions taken by Muslims, for good or for ill, cannot occur without the stewardship of the West—an arrogant premise to say the least. Such views, when embraced by Muslims, are symptomatic of a self-hatred, perhaps the residual effect of our colonial heritage, which has convinced us that we are incapable of any endeavor without the help of Gora Sahib (the Great White Master).