Posted on 04/27/2002 5:20:19 PM PDT by Pokey78
DICTATORIAL excess at Saddam Hussein's £5.5m birthday party has been toned down because of the Palestinian crisis - but only slightly, reports Topaz Amoore in Baghdad
President Saddam Hussein has let it be known that in sympathy with the suffering of Palestinians, he will be toning down celebrations at his 65th birthday party for 3,500 guests by ordering the dancing girls to stay at home.
"This year is different," said Uday al-Ta'ay, the director-general of Iraq's Ministry of Information. "In Palestine they are demolishing villages and killing people. This is not a time for dancing."
The rest of the £5.5 million show - part of the "spontaneous expression of love and respect from the people to the president" - will go on as planned. There will be a birthday party in Saddam's home town of Tikrit, a military march-past and numerous renditions of Happy Birthday on national radio.
Saddam will remain modestly behind the scenes, as is usual during the nationwide festivities, until a television appearance scheduled for 9pm. "He is busy working, trying to break the US embargo," Mr al-Ta'ay said. For Baghdad's cultural elite, there is the unprecedented thrill of a seat in the audience for the Iraqi National Theatre world premier production of Zabibah and the King - the play of the novel by Saddam Hussein.
In a society where praise for the president is the only comment tolerated, the play's director is confident of success. The plot revolves around a sovereign who falls in love with a common girl, a symbol of the hopes of the people.
The CIA is reported to have studied the plot in the hope of gleaning some insight into the mind of the Iraqi leader whose protagonist, the good king, wants to be closer to his subjects but is blocked by his corrupt entourage in the pay of a foreign power. "Iraqis know how to read between the lines and they will understand the message the play carries," said Abdul Monsef al-Zaydi, a fine arts school teacher.
Today's lavish celebrations contrast starkly with the poverty that grips most of Iraq's 22 million inhabitants. For them, there is little comfort in the show that Saddam is putting on for international benefit, which includes moving extra anti-aircraft guns up to the Northern no-fly zone patrolled by US and British jets. His celebrations coincide with the publication in Atlantic Monthly magazine in America of a profile of the Iraqi leader by Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, based on interviews with Iraqi defectors.
According to these interviews, Saddam had planned to tie captured American troops to Iraqi tanks, using them as human shields to protect his forces as they advanced into Saudi Arabia as part of the Gulf War. Saddam has consciously modelled himself on Joseph Stalin, devouring dozens of books on the ruthless Soviet dictator who was responsible for the deaths of millions, according to the article.
For fear of showing any weakness, Saddam, who has a bad back and a slight limp, is rarely seen walking more than a few steps in public but swims and walks behind the high walls of his estates. His greying hair is dyed black and, to avoid wearing glasses in public, his speeches are printed out in large letters, just a few lines to each page.
Fearing assassination, he takes elaborate security precautions, resulting in a pantomime in which European-trained chefs at more than 20 palaces each prepare three meals a day for him, not knowing where he will turn up. Fresh food is flown in for him twice a week. It is first sent to his nuclear scientists to be X-rayed and tested for radiation and poison. Even the water in which he swims is checked.
A tour of Baghdad, with its ubiquitous Saddam posters, murals and statuary, proves only that this cynically fostered one-man personality cult is still going strong.
"He deserves this more and more," Mr al-Ta'ay said. "He is a symbol of our dignity, our heroic existence. You ask an ordinary citizen whatever you like and he will tell you that he loves the president."
Bumped so I can find it the next time some nitwit starts flapping his lip about how the poor children of Iraq are starving because of US sanctions.
a.cricket
Because if he doesn't, he will end up in a grocery bag in lots of little pieces.
Nothing like a little "planned spontaneity" to bring joy to the heart of a dictator.
I thought that his MO and behavior resembles Stalin too much. But I never knew that he consciously studied Joseph Stalin.
The dancing girls were canceled, let's face it, because Saddam is unable to, er, well, you know...anymore.
I guess there was no room on the plane for the Viagra.
Seems that Iraq has plenty of money, it's just not supposed to go to the people.
The dancing girl's initials are A.C.
Are you for real?
Aw come on...let him have his strippers. :-)
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