Your Turn: Killing Time Between Christmas And New Years

I'm traveling through Friday -- partly having thought that things would be slow. 

Because I haven't given you much room lately to run with the discussion, I'm on the move, and the recent political pictures have been, well, remarkable, I'm offering you these two to consider over the weekend.

The first shot was published Thursday in the NYT.  (Here's the article.)  It shows Bush and his top  "still considering" what to do about Iraq. 

The second image ran this morning on the newswires, and is a screen grab from "Iraq TV."  For the sake of context, here's the caption:

This video image released by Iraqi state television shows Saddam Hussein's guards wearing ski masks and placing a noose around the deposed leader's neck moments before his execution Saturday Dec. 30. 2006. Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.

When I've needed the break, you have always been there to give a great read. Thanks, as always.  It's your BAG. 

(image 1: Larry Downing/Reuters.  December 27, 2006.  Crawford, Texas.  nyt.com.  image 2: AP/Iraqi TV.  December 30, 2006.  Somewhere in Iraq.  via YahooNews)

Comments

[tina]

we will not become the evil that we deplore.

whoops, too late.

[Rafael]

The Life, Times and Death of a once useful proxy.

[donna]

And the death completed before the fact that he was merely a useful proxy came out in the trial about the Kurds and how they died, and who sold him the WMDs.

How conveeeennient...

[Darryl Pearce]

Matt Frei, the BBC Washington correspondent, observes:
The White House may boast about the new rule of law but for many ordinary Iraqis justice comes in the form of death squads, torture gangs and rogue police road blocks.

These days the wrong identity card can get you executed. This is not the kind of justice that George Bush had in mind."

[Lisa Boucher]

The Hussein execution photo is weird. It just looks like some crims broke into an apartment and are lynching its resident over the stairwell.

[growabrain]

Good bye Saddam - http://www.bushflash.com/thanks.html

[Casey]

Re: The Hanging - I'm struck by the evident low ceiling of the gray box that is the gallows. Nothing fancy at all. And where did the Iraqis get the ski masks? Don't they usually wear headgear wrapped around their heads? Maybe the CIA fixed them up with a new look.

I think the details in the photo provide a better indicator of the significance of his death than the death itself. Not many are/were fighting for him anyway, and not many will care. These days, there are as many reasons to kill as to die in Iraq -

[Vay Porlock]

This makes me very angry. A flawed election that ends in a man being hung by a rope only shows what a barbaric mid-evil place Bush has turned Iraq into. If Saddam is hung for the deaths of 150 people what should happen to Bush for the deaths of 650,000 Iraqis, or Clinton for sanctions that killed an estimated 500,000 Iraqis, or papa Bush's "Gulf War" that killed over 100,000 Iraqi conscripts.

Below is a link to what Saddam's lawyer had to say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNA3t3guG90&eurl=

[gillesroy]

Political designs behind Saddam’s execution :

1. Saddam is clearly the scapegoat for an international war syndicate, which includes many in our current political leadership, both in front and behind the scenes. Evacuating due process, controlling evidence and terrorizing the defense team were all par for the course in Saddam’s trial. A key reason for the speedy road to execution, was to eliminate a prominent player and key witness of this international criminal war conspiracy, thereby avoid further indictment of members of our leadership, many of whom have been accessory to Saddam’s actual crimes.

2. To « bookend » media fatigue and public indifference, re : Saddam’s trial. The whole point of the « trial » was to deliver a quick public execution, and thereby feed the hunger for blood so brilliantly cultivated in Western public opinion. An execution gives sense of heightened drama, and inagurates the next round of intensified bloodshed in the region… and beyond.

3. Lastly, to make Saddam a martyr for (gasp!) sympathisers, thereby deepening chaos in the middle-east over a longer period of time. Certainly, the US-led war in Iraq can be called a success insofar as its central purpose has been to aid the spreading of chaos in the Middle-East.

[san antone rose]

My name is Jorge Arbusto. You almost killed my father. Prepare to die.

I can't get over how dreary and hopeless BushCo looks in that top pic. Like someone just ran over their dog.

[Cactus]

I spent the weekend trying to avoid hangings and funerals by watching the last season of "Deadwood." Beatings and knifings, only. So far...

RE: Saddam: Are those the same docks he was locked into during the trial? There must be a shortage.

The photo of W et al., I saw a different angle of this a couple of days ago and almost sent it in to The Bag. What I noticed first is Condi with her head down in disgrace again. She is NOT a happy camper. Uniform of the day: pale blue shirt, open collar, no tie, dark blazer. Dammit, Dick, I said DARK blazer! What a hang-dog bunch! W looks like he's about to cry, if he only knew how.

[Samantha]

I think what would be more interesting is putting the grainy photo of the rushed lynching of Saddam next to a photo of the grandness of a state funeral for Gerald Ford. Two former heads of state, two very different fates unfolding before the new year.

But anyway, Saddam, in this photo, has the expression of a man whose destiny has caught up with him. He is gazing far away, even though the room is tiny and cramped and there is nowhere for him to really look. He is motionless. Even in the video, he seems like the only unmoveable piece. Everything else is a flurry around him, the guards, the glaring lights, the staggering camera. Someone said on another site that it seemed like a snuff film. But not really, because the star shows no emotion. What fun is that.

I was surprised when I first saw the footage. I expected something else, I don't know what exactly,...but certainly not thugs in leather jackets and ski masks handling Saddam.

Anyway, to the gallows he went. And even though it was an expected event, even though it was "legal," even though the accused seemed resigned to it, it STILL looks like a lynching, not a hanging. Is it the street clothing Saddam wore instead of prison garb? The guards? The room? What is it.

[weisseharre]

"O how shall man live

Whose thought is born, child of one farcical night,

To find him old?

By loss of memory we are reborn... " -W.H.Auden

[KansasKowboy]

I am sure that Bushco pressured the Iraqis to hang Saddam before the Democrats took power in Washington. Why, I am not sure. Perhaps as a poster noted above they wanted Saddam out of the picture before the Democrats start any investigations. As far as the photo at crawford, I wish they would quit with the sport jacket and no-tie thing. Since Katrina Bushco has tried very hard to not look like he is on vacation and taking life easy. I think they ought to give the blazer-no-tie thing up. Either wear a tie with the blazer or just go ahead and put on the Dickies, the cowboy shirt hat and boots. They aren't fooling anyone with the no tie thing. Also, I noticed in that family photo of the Bush Family that was going around before the Holidays, that Bush had on a pair of cowboy boots. He had his pants pulled up high to make sure everyone could see the Presidential Seal that was on the boots. To me that was extremely hideous.

[ummabdulla]

In the top photo, that is not a team that inspires confidence. Condi is doing her best to not be seen. Quite a contrast from her as the "It girl", which was also at the Crawford ranch, wasn't it?

Seeing the picture of Saddam hanging, I'm sure a lot of people would be tempted to Photoshop Bush's face into that noose...

[Mad_nVT]

Well, the Bush Team presents a wonderful picture for the New Year, and a picture of the future for Iraq.

There's W out front, looks like he is whining and telling another "stretcher", a little aggressive in his inconfident way. But the cowboy swagger is gone.

Rice and Pace: "Hey Condi, hey General, how's it going in Iraq?"

Cheney: he's got his eye on his 'bubble boy', but Cheney isn't looking too happy, or too healthy, it looks like he is seeing into the future and it ain't at all pretty.

[Mad_nVT]

Say, when in history have we seen so many photos of the President keeping so much company with his VP?

[ahpook]

I saw a clip of the hanging on youtube, ripped from CNN international -- the commentator smugly pointed out "dont worry - despite what they showed on Arab TV, we are not going to air the moment of execution." then he added "here are the preparations - let's watch for a moment".. it just struck me as incongruous: ackowledgement of the voyeuristic impulse while attempting to retain the moral high ground.
as to the video/images themselves, i read elsewhere and agree entirely that the thing they most resemble are the torture/decapitation footage released in the first wave of hostage-taking in Iraq in 2004-2005. the rawness of the image gives lie to the official line that this one is different somehow because of its patina of legitimacy.

[Samantha]

In regards to the Bush photo, I wanted to comment on the physical position of the Bush team. To me, this is how they've always set things up. It's always been formal, overly respectful, and the team is understated, set back away from the president, like back-up singers.

This is designed to create an appearance of authority and leadership. In other words, the gang says with their body language, he's the president, he's the man, we take our cues from him, not the other way around. In the beginning of the first year this was a political necessity, because one of the knocks on Bush was his lack of experience, his fumbling, his lack of knowledge. Cheney balanced the ticket, but they needed to avoid the perception that Cheney was running papa Bush's boy. Which, of course was what was happening, but it's the perception that's important.

So, always there is the reverence, the respect, the down-turned eyes, the folded hands.

I can't imagine the next president needing to continue this type of behavior.

[Moses]

Viewing the faux "conferring" photo, I wondered: Who is that half-guy over to the side? Is it one of the neocons on Cheney's staff whose actual power over our military and strategy world-wide has been hidden from the American Public?

So I clicked on the article and found it was Peter Pace. So the guy representing the military is standing apart from the civilian cabal that is running and deploying the US military according to neocon half-baked and manic ideologies. He looks glum, but of course he has been licking neocon boots this whole time.

The new Defense Secy is hardly in the picture. He appears as a kind of "Where's Waldo" head compared to the rest of the cabal-- this is in keeping with his apparent bland bureaucratic rubber-stamping of whatever Cheney et al want.

Condi's body language is in keeping with the schoolmarmish step-and-fetch-it to Cheney et al that she has always been.

Cheney comes off as the real power here. The photo conveys how he has every one else in tow, including that poodle on his leash in front of the microphones.

The Saddam photo is shameful. Looks like another kidnapping and execution by gangsters. The way I have heard and read that it is being played by CNN, I think that I would like to photoshop Wolf Blitzer's head into the noose, and read off his crimes of orchestrating support for the war in Iraq by falsely framing Saddam Hussein as deployer of Anthrax and as possessor of WMD, -- Maybe it was CNN ordered the execution to boost their holiday ratings. Wouldn't surprise me in the least.

[PTate in MN]

Samantha: "...the physical position of the Bush team....is designed to create an appearance of authority and leadership. ...So, always there is the reverence, the respect, the down-turned eyes, the folded hands."

I interpret the body language of Rice and Pace differently--I interpret their nonverbals as shame. Bush looks shrill, as usual in over his head. Rumsfeld's replacement...now what was his name??? Papa Bush's friend?...is a placeholder. At least with Rumsfeld you knew there was a independent and lively brain at work. He was wrong on all counts, but he thought for himself. And Cheney...he looks just like a ventriloquist. Do his lips move when Bush speaks?

I haven't looked at any of the Hussein execution pictures: The whole thing make me feel degraded, unclean. I regard a public execution as barbaric, however monstrous Hussein was when he had power. As tina said, right at the start of the thread, we have become the evil that we deplore.

[ummabdulla]

"dont worry - despite what they showed on Arab TV, we are not going to air the moment of execution."

The BBC said that they would cut it before we actually saw him drop, but they had no choice anyway, because they were taking it from Iraqi TV, and that's all they showed on Iraqi TV. Same with Al-Jazeera. The only place you can see what happened after that is on the Internet. Actually, it's worth playing, even if you don't want to see it (close your eyes and just listen), because it has sound, and you get a very different impression. There are 20-25 people there, apparently all Shia, and they're taunting him before and after he's killed.

[Cactus]

I like Samantha's comment about the back-up singers. The four are like little mannequins or paper dolls propped up behind the presnit just like a set decoration at the opera. I wonder when they will begin singing? And where is W's flag pin?

Moses thought Cheney had the power in this photo. I looked again, and he's got a point, but I can't figure out why. Is it because his blazer is lighter, thus making him seem larger? Or because he is looking at W (apparently, though difficult to be certain)? And I agree that Condi & Pace, by their body language, show reluctance to be there. Condi, loyal to the end like Eva, will go down with the ship of state but she's smart enough to know it's over. Pace in his military stance, yet somehow managing to ooze defiance.

[PTate in MN]

Cactus:"Moses thought Cheney had the power in this photo. I looked again, and he's got a point, but I can't figure out why"

How about his hands, folded complacently in front of him, like he is twiddling his thumbs? You are right about the power associated with looking out at the camera. And that the tan blazer makes him stand out. Part of it is contrast--everyone else looks ashamed (Pace, Rice), miserable (Bush) or is hidden by Bush (Gates) in the foreground.

Bush's arms are supplicating, almost akimbo: He is giving it away.

You just can't stage amazing non-verbals like these.

[Mad_nVT]

More on Rice and Pace:

Ashamed is right. And broken. Embarrassed by the Incompetent standing there before them.

Embarrassed and shamed by the lies, the deaths, the broken military, the lack of options, the lack of hope, the quagmire.

Almost humiliated by the unreality of all of it.

And most of all, ashamed that they are unable to speak the truth. Cowards? Traitors to the nation?

They wish they were anywhere but there.

[Rafael]

Juan Cole gave the U.S./Saddam track record a good once over:

http://www.juancole.com/2006/12/riverbend-is-back-riverbend-weighs-in.html#comments

And Nezua has a good photoshopped pic that pust everything in perspective:

http://www.theunapologeticmexican.org/elgrito/2006/12/please_dont_let_on_that_you_knew_me_when.html#comments

Happy New Year folks!

[mugatea]

Condi, in public, has never looked more sad or unconfident than she has in the last few months. This photo, especially viewed as one in the series of that moment (Yahoo Photos),
is so f'n telling.

In the words of the honorable Gomer Pyle –

Shame,

shame,

shame.

[Moses]

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/canwest/90/george_bush_122806.jpg?size=l

Here's one where Condi has completely disappeared. So much for the State Department and diplomacy!

Cheney's power is still evident as the new kid stands next to him, and NOT by the side of the military he is overseeing. He is signalling his allegiance with the Cheney cabal and the neocons.

[Samantha]

"So the guy representing the military is standing apart from the civilian cabal that is running and deploying the US military according to neocon half-baked and manic ideologies."

Ha! No surprise there. Good observation.

I agree that Cheney has the power. It comes through in every photo.

But I don't see shame in the other figures at all. I think we're just projecting that. You don't climb that high holding onto a capacity for shame. It's all very machiavelian. Rice is no fool, or nice little girl. She is a savy, hardened political player who knows her place in this administration.

PTate: Please elaborate about the president's arms being akimbo and giving it away. What is it he is communicating?

[PTate in MN]

Samantha,
Turns out, I used "akimbo" wrong. It actually refers to standing with your hands on your hips with your elbows away from the body. I've always used it to refer to a posture that is off balance, elbows at the hips, arms away from the body.

Bush's arms are in a supplicant's position, vulnerable, his hands are open, facing the camera. Here's a quick google of another person to give you the idea. He is giving away his authority and credibility.

Interestingly, this is also the posture that Christian priests use during the eucharist prayer (Bush speechifies like a Texas preacher, but here he jumps denominations?)

As for shame, have you got any evidence that people lose the capacity for shame when they "climb that high" or is that just a personal animus against the powerful? Those downward gazing eyes are telling us a great deal. Pace is particularly miserable. Rice is harder to read: I agree that she is a savvy political player, but she is also someone who has been been rewarded for playing the game. Now that her sponsors are losing the game, she may well be feeling compromised. Rats abandon sinking ships.