Iraq: Military parades displaying huge portraits of country's leader are back

[sabra]

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2009-07-08/kurd.htm

Iraq’s ‘democracy’ in pictures

By Fatih Abdulsalam
Azzaman, July 8, 2009


The footage of government-held celebrations marking the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities signals that the status quo is not different from that under the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

The big portraits of Prime Minister Noor al-Maliki carried on the shoulders of parading troops and distributed by international media worldwide are a reminder that very little change has come to Iraq in the years since the 2003-U.S. invasion.

The huge portraits say the change which Iraqis looked forward is merely a change in names and not systems, because that was what exactly happened when Saddam Hussein was in power.

There is no country with a claim to democracy in which big portraits of its leader are hoisted during military parades.

...

Of course the U.S. would feign that it has nothing to do with “portraits” and that carrying the prime minister’s glossy pictures in parades is part of the ‘democratic’ practices it implanted in Iraq.


In countries with democratic systems, people neither worship their leaders nor their portraits. Allegiance is to the national flag - the state.

...

No one thought they would ever make a comeback. The practice is the same. It is just a different name and person.

Iraqi security forces carry a portrait of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a parade in Mosul, 360 kilometers, 225 miles, northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, July 1, 2009. The U.S. withdrew its combat troops from major urban areas on June 30 as part of a security agreement that will see American forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

[GodlessBiker]

1. Pagan totems.

[hobbit709]

2. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[Echo In Light]

3. Few things scream "Democracy!" like military parades!

Ugh