Dan Rather: (Saddam) A Latter-Day Saladin

Opinion Journal ^ | 02/28/03 | Dan Rather

[Pokey78]

Baghdad Palace. "Old Baghdad Palace" Iraqis call it, to distinguish it from the many others that have sprung up since the British had this one built in 1921 after they took over from the Turks in the wake of World War I.

[mcenedo]

Dan Rather sucks!

[First_Salute]

There is one thing which might save Saddam's "career."

If he can find Osama bin Laden and promptly turns him in to the F.B.I. --- Saddam had two weeks to get it done.

[fatima]

Dan Rather sucks,opps you already said that.He will be let go ,to think about how great he is,he is done.

[JennysCool]

After spending almost three hours in his presence, one got the sense that his mind is turning furiously as he tries to discover a way out of his corner.

Err...How about giving up the WMD? Seems simple enough.

[WorkingClassFilth]

A TRIBUTE TO GUNGA DAN by SADDAM
(Apologies to Kipling)

Infidels talk o' gin an' beer
When quartered safe away out 'ere
An' you're sent to penny-fights like Blixen's got it;
But if it really comes to slaughter
I give no mercy nor qua'ter,
An you'll lick my bloomin' boots 'cause I comand it.
Now in I-raq's sunny clime,
Where I like to spend my time
A-servin' m'self, an tyranny sublime,
Of all my black-faced crew
The cravenest man I knew
Was our journalistic bootlick, Gunga Dan

The uniform 'e wore
Was nothin' much before,
An' rather less than 'arf o' that behind
'is safari coat near rags
An' CBS camera bags
Was all the field equipment 'e could find.
Where sweatin' troopers lay
In bunkers' through the day
Gunga Dan learned Islamic vice t'would make your eyeballs crawl,
Saddam's Guards shouted "Harry by!"
Till their throats were bricky-dry
Then whipped 'im 'till 'e serviced them all.

I shan't forget the night
When I was hidin' before the fight
With bullets soon whistlin' where my head would 'a' been
I was fumin' fit to burst,
But the man that spied me first
Was our good old grinnin', gruntin' Gunga Dan.
'E soothed my weary 'ead,
Then I shagged him till 'e bled,
An' 'e guv me 'arf-an-hour - prime time;
It was maudlin' and it stunk,
But of all the questions I've dunked
I'm gratefullest to ones from Gunga Dan

'E carried me away
Where the French newsman lay,
An' his critics come an' drilled the beggar clean.
'E put me safe aside,
An' just before 'is career died:
"I 'ope you liked m'oral skills" sez Gunga Dan.
So I'll meet 'im later on
In the place where 'e is gone
Where it's always S&M and no canteen;
'E'll be kneelin' on the coals
A interviewin' pore damned souls
An I'll get some comfort in Hell from Gunga Dan!

[Man of the Right]

Rather should ask himself how he got the exclusive: By being the worst Quisling in the American media. With people like Jennings, Brokaw, Arnett etc. as the competition, that's really saything something.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

To relate Saddam to Saladin does a great disservice to the later. Saladin, controlled Egypt and Syria (Saladin, the sultan of Egypt, Syria, Arabia and Mesopotamia), and drove the European Crusaders out of Jerusalem. Saladin was a brilliant leader and a merciful victor. Saladin was a Kurd, born in Tikrit, Iraq. Dan Rather should get his facts straight - even Saddam would likely object to being tossed in with the Kurds, many of whom he destroyed with WMD (chemical). And Saddam is neither a brilliant leader nor a merciful victor.

[Thorondir]

Man! I would expect this kind of heart-thumping drivel from a teenager girl writing about her rock idol. What a sick and twisted a$$-kiss Rather is. Disgusting!

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Brian Allen]

Geez, who does this idiot savant [IE: "liberal"] figger himself to be?

Bloody Hong Kong-Maggie Thatcher, maybe?

As in: [EG]

["One supposes one's son may have profited just a little from one's having sold one's Once-FRee-British Hong Kong's Millions of Subjects into one's and one's sons and one's cabinet's "chinese" masters' medieval surfdom."]

Why, next thing you know the moronic mass-murdering-mongrel-bastard-dictator appeasing lunatic left-wing fringe lickspittle will be addressing US in the "royal 'We.'"

Rather is a TRAITOR!

[joanie-f]

Thanks for the pings, Mike and Brian.

A friend -- who is aware of my love for stories about the heartland of America (past and present), but who was unaware of my disdain for Mr. Rather -- gave me Rather’s book, ‘The American Dream: Stories From the Heart of Our Nation’ last Christmas (I hope he found it in the 'cheap book bin' at Cosco’s, rather than paying full price).

I glanced through it -- knowing full well that I would never read the entire thing, considering its author -- and was dismayed (although certainly not surprised) to find that, rather than focusing on warm American stories of hard work/success/nostalgia, the book instead focuses almost exclusively on people who achieved in spite of the inherent wrongs that the American system represents (as a result of our misguided, white, Anglo Saxon founders, I’m sure …. although I have to admit that I didn’t read far enough to determine whether they were cited as the usual culprits …. it’s just an educated hunch). The greatness (once) embodied in this country is maligned by Rather -- through both gross inattention to positives, and glaring exaggeration of negatives.

As for this article …. shame on the Wall Street Journal for publishing such garbage. And shame on me for reading (at least the first part of) it, before I came to my senses and realized that I have better things to do …. like washing my hair, or polishing my nails.

Who in God’s name cares about Mr. Rather’s amateur psychoanalysis, or droning physical observations, of this ‘Latter-Day Saladin’ (excuse me while I choke on that particular reference)? Mr. Rather needs to climb down off of his self-constructed imperious podium, stop pandering to maniacal madmen, and take a course in patriotism (and humility).

I, for one, don’t care if Hussein’s footsteps sound sharp reports that reverberate off the hard tiles to the high ceilings above (and, by the way, waxing poetic in describing the physical movements of a degenerate, insane, megalomaniacal, paranoid butcher, should be considered a capital crime), or if he has stiffness as a result of back problems. Nor do I care what his body language intimates.

The only thing that is worth my consideration where Saddam Hussein is concerned is pleasant contemplation of the exact date and time of his death.

As for Rather’s remark that ‘he [Hussein] will somehow endure this present test, and whatever lies after, …. two observations:

(1) Hussein himself, single-handedly, composed this test, and, in doing so, he drew up the blueprint for his own destruction.

(2) Not only will he not endure this present test, but those who still value truth (not to mention life and liberty), despite their civility otherwise, will be cheering his demise.

Do me a favor please, Mike and Brian? The next time I think about reading something (anything) written by Mr. Rather, remind me how many more pleasant things there are for me spend my time doing (like sticking a hot poker in my eye).