Saddam lives on

There are so many myths and legends about Saddam Hussein that it is difficult for anyone to know what is true and what is false, says KESAVA MENON.

IN A recent instalment of his programme, the U.S. satirical talk- show host, Mr. Jay Leno, pretending to be alluding to reports that Iraq's President, Mr. Saddam Hussein was about to hand over office to his son Uday, said, ``What sort of a country is it where the son follows his father into the Presidency.'' Well! Mr. Saddam Hussein is not going anywhere and he will take on incoming the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, with as much panache as he did Dubya's father.

When the knights of the Bush table - especially Sir Dick Cheney and Sir Colin Powell - re-enter Camelot they will do so with the exasperated realisation that the one dragon they tried so desperately to exterminate is still out there. And smoking!. He chases Mr. Fidel Castro's record for the most number of U.S. Presidencies that have been seen off during his watch. (To add to this particular nightmare of U.S. history, Venezuela's Mr. Hugo Chavez might soon join the Fidel-Saddam contest).

The Bush-Cheney-Powell team must have fervently wished that recent reports that Mr. Saddam Hussein was suffering from cancer were true. As expected, there was a prompt denial from the Iraqi Government. No outsider knows the exact status of the Iraqi high command and there are so many myths and legends mixed in with the probably very true reports about Mr. Saddam Hussein's cunning and cruelty that is difficult for anyone to know what is true and what false. As an old West Asian hand pointed out. it is very possible that Mr. Saddam Hussein himself floated rumours about his ill-health in an attempt to smoke out those among his cohorts who might be getting restive. But for all intents and purposes the world will probably have to accept the veracity of recent photographs in which he was shown in a natty suit and cap-firing a rifle as though it was only a slightly awkward pistol.

Mr. Uday Hussein has if anything been even more demonised than his father and perhaps with good reason. However, the incoming U.S. administration would probably have been much happier dealing with him because, even if he has his father's ruthlessness, he surely does not possess his experience. So, the men who first put together the ``get Saddam'' policy will have to take up the task yet again. Mr. Cheney, who was Defence Secretary when the policy was drafted, is apparently going to be more gung-ho about the project but Gen. Powell, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the same time, seems to be approaching the task with more caution.

Compounding the difficulty of the ``get Saddam'' policy is the fact that the mechanisms that Mr. Cheney and Gen. Powell put together under the direction of the elder Bush have fallen apart. The U.S. and the U.K. have been reduced to a minority among the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council in respect of the policy of enforcing the economic embargo on Iraq till it spits out Mr. Saddam Hussein and his associates. Russia and China are barely disguising the fact that they are doing business with Mr. Saddam Hussein and France, which is doing likewise, has set an example which most of the European Union is only too happy to follow.

Turkey and the countries of the Arab world which quite willing served on the frontline of the coalition to oust Mr. Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s are now more busy wriggling out of their bondage to the U.S./British policy. Many of the Arab states, including Egypt, have entered into the practice of despatching political-cum-business delegations to Iraq disguised as humanitarian missionaries. Syria has opened its land communications and is working on repairing a pipeline to convey Iraqi oil. Only Kuwait holds out among the Arabs because even Saudi Arabia is clearly getting restive at the continuance of a scheme which makes ordinary Iraqis suffer while it does nothing to remove the Iraqi regime.

There was even a report this week that the British Government was thinking of asking the incoming U.S. administration to get rid of the programme whereby they jointly impose a ``no fly zone'' over southern Iraq. According to this report, the British felt that the banning of flights over southern Iraq was no longer necessary since the ban had been imposed in order to prevent Iraq from using its military aircraft to oppress the Shia majority there and the people of southern Iraq were no longer under such a threat. This report was instantly denied by the British Government. But if this is another case where Governments initially deny something they will eventually admit is true, then the slayers of the Saddam dragon will be entering the joust with their grooms in a sulk.

If the incoming Bush Administration is able to shake off its hubris and its desire for revenge it will be able to perceive the one undeniable achievement of the ``get Saddam'' policy. Ten years ago even many Arabs might have been inclined to look on Mr. Saddam Hussein as a crazy man. Today, he is the foremost hero for the Arab street. For the ordinary Arab, it is Mr. Saddam Hussein not the Bushies who is the dragon-slayer.

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