Cover of Maclean's Magazine (Canada): "How Bush Became The New Saddam"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20070920_100442_7900&source=srch&page=1

Patrick Graham | Sep 20, 2007 | 14:04:44

It was embarrassing putting my flak jacket on backwards and sideways, but in the darkness of the Baghdad airport car park I couldn’t see anything. “Peterik, put the flak jacket on,” the South African security contractor was saying politely, impatiently. “You know the procedure if we are attacked.”

I didn’t. He explained. One of the chase vehicles would pull up beside us and someone would drag me out of the armoured car, away from the firing. If both drivers were unconscious—nice euphemism—he said I should try to run to the nearest army checkpoint. If the checkpoint was American, things might work out if they didn’t shoot first. If it was Iraqi . . . he didn’t elaborate.

Arriving in Baghdad has always been a little weird. Under Saddam Hussein it was like going into an orderly morgue; when he ran off after the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003 put an end to his Baathist party regime, the city became a chaotic mess. I lived in Iraq for almost two years, but after three years away I wasn’t quite ready for just how deserted and worn down the place seemed in the early evening. It was as if some kind of mildew was slowly rotting away at the edges of things, breaking down the city into urban compost.

Since 2003, more than 3,775 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, while nearly 7,500 Iraqi policemen and soldiers have died. For Iraq’s civilian population, the carnage has been almost incalculable. Last year alone, the UN estimated that 34,500 civilians were killed and more than 36,000 wounded; other estimates are much higher. As the country’s ethnic divisions widen, especially between Iraq’s Arab Shia and Arab Sunni Muslims (the Kurds are the third major group), some two million people have been internally displaced, with another two million fleeing their homeland altogether. Entering Baghdad I could tell the Sunni neighbourhoods, ghettos really, by the blasts in the walls and the emptiness, courtesy of sectarian cleansing by the majority Shias. The side streets of the Shia districts seemed to have a little more life to them.

[Purveyor]

1. Sweet and fitting, indeed! K&R eom

[lurky]

2. What a picture!

[Auntie Bush]

5. I do too!

[Cha]

3. bush's worst nightmare..

Morphing into sadam's life...one of his worst anyway.

[file83]

14. Are you kidding? This is Bush's wet dream.

He's always wanted to be a dictator. His dream is now coming true.

[Cha]

15. Did ya forget

how sadam ended up?

[file83]

16. Oh yeah.

LOL :rofl:

Yeah, Bush wouldn't like that.
But does that mean we're going to be invaded and occupied by some "liberation army" in order to remove him from power? :scared:

[Cha]

17. WTF knows!?

How dics end up!

[lligrd]

4. I Love It - Saddam Bush

Exactly how I will refer to him from now on. On second thought, I think Saddam had better policies than Bush would given the same power.

[gateley]

6. K&R -- Great article. nt

[Clintonista2]

7. For Americans who don't know, Mcleans is VERY popular here, it's our equivalent of time/newsweek

[pansypoo53219]

8. on his way to hitler

so, how do we get regime change?

[liberalla]

9. Oh, Canada!

Thank you!

I hope this gets seen in the US!

big smile

[MetalCanuck]

13. This is what most canadians think:)

[Domitan]

10. The irony here is that Maclean has become more "neoconnish" over the years

Maybe not exactly neoconnish, but it's definitely not known to be progressive...and tends to favour the soft-right point of view. So having this cover on Maclean is FUCKING huge! Just imagine the Washington Post (reputed to be liberal by the ill-informed but really a shill for the corporate right) doing the same thing. In case you have doubts, Conrad Black's wife, Barbara Amiel has written columns for Macleans for years.

[Lisa]

12. great points!

I was rather surprised when my co-workers showed me the cover yesterday. I hadn't expected the magazine to take such an emphatic stance, especially given their further shift to the right in recent years.

[renate]

11. very eloquent description of Baghdad

"deserted and worn down..." "...as if some kind of mildew was slowly rotting away at the edges of things, breaking down the city into urban compost."

Baghdad was no paradise before the war, as the author says, but how different it is now from what the Iraqis must have expected when Saddam was overthrown. If only there had been some planning for after the war beyond being greeted with flowers.

[Blue_Tires]

18. ttt