Bush as Saddam

[Guest guest]

Bush as Saddam magazine cover stirs controversy

Updated Sun. Sep. 23 2007 1:08 PM ET

 

CTV.ca News Staff

 

The cover article on the latest issue of Maclean's magazine, titled

" How Bush Became the New Saddam,'' is stirring up controversy south

of

the border.

 

Bush is depicted on the cover dressed as Saddam Hussein, complete with

a moustache, beret and military attire.

 

Freelance journalist Patrick Graham, who wrote the story, said the

idea came from a comment made to him during a recent trip to Iraq.

 

" An Iraqi friend of mine was laughing, saying, 'The Americans are the

new Baathists in Iraq', " Graham told CTV's Question Period on Sunday,

referring to the party once ruled by Hussein.

 

" When I said that to my editor, they thought through what the

implications were. They read my piece, and they put that together. "

 

In the U.S., bloggers on the left and right have been hotly debating

the merits of the comparison.

 

" Graham legitimately documented the danger and violence that still

exists in Iraq, but nowhere in his article was he willing to concede

anything positive about the country's progress,'' complains Lynn

Davidson on one U.S.-based conservative blog.

 

" (His) one-sided portrayal of Iraq made the New York Times' coverage

look fair and balanced.''

 

Still, Suneel Khanna, communications director for Maclean's, told ABC

News that the magazine has not received any complaints from its 10,000

American rs.

 

Graham defends article

 

Graham, who spent more than a year in Iraq following the U.S.

invasion, returned recently to document the progress.

 

Before leaving in the fall of 2004, Graham had written an article

describing the insurgency and the tribal culture in Anbar province.

 

" It was a very influential article and it helped, I think, influence

the way in which the Americans developed their surge strategy, " said

Graham.

 

" So when I went back I was really curious because the people that I

knew who had been in the insurgency were now fighting with the

Americans. "

 

Graham said the switch was an extraordinary development.

 

" What I realized after I got there (the second time) was that the

Americans had really switched sides and that they were carrying out

the old Baathist strategy in Iraq and that's one of the reasons why

the insurgents and a lot of Sunni Iraqis had switched sides. "

 

Graham said he discovered that the surge strategy was essentially the

Saddam strategy -- which was to contain the Kurds, confront the Shia

using tribal Sunnis, and to confront Iran.

 

" They basically created a home grown insurgency in Anbar, which

they've now won over, and now they're not admitting to themselves what

they're doing -- which is taking up where Saddam left off, " said

Graham.

 

He said it's important that the U.S. admit who their new allies are

and understand the implications of their strategies or they will

" screw up again. "

 

wargasm wargasm one two three

pit bull, pit bull, one two three

wave those flags high in the air

as long as it takes place over there