I’m just about speechless with anger at the moment, but hang with me.
As you may have seen, Jalal Talibani was picked as the interim President of Iraq. Most pundits with an understanding of Iraq’s internal politics have lauded this move by the interim Iraqi parliament. CNN Headline News, however, has decided to smear this Iraqi politician by running the caption “Saddam’s Successor” under footage of Talibani.
Let’s break this down for CNN with a simple chart, shall we?
| J. Talibani | S. Hussein | |
|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity: | Kurdish | Sunni Arab |
| Duly-elected in a free election by a cross-section of his people: | Yes | No |
| Tinpot dictator responsible for hundreds of thousands of lost lives over the course of a 30 year reign of terror: | No | Yes |
| Directly responsible for a genocidal campaign against the Kurdish minority in Iraq: | He is Kurdish, you fool! | Yes |
| Spawned two monstrous sons who enjoyed raping women, torturing entire families for fun and executing underperforming athletes: | No evidence yet, but I hear CBS has a line on a devastating memo. | Yes |
| Responsible for the single largest corruption scandal in world history which lead to the financing of terrorism and the death of thousands of his own people due to withholding of food and medical attention: | Not yet, but he just got elected. These things take time! | Yes |
| Seized power in a profoundly undemocratic fashion, resulting in the deaths of his primary political and military rivals: | No | Yes |
| Counts Josef Stalin as one of his intellectual and political heroes: | No | Yes, but I mean, what Arab dictator didn’t back in those heady ’70’s after all? |
So, good catch, CNN! Besides all of those things, Talibani is precisely like Saddam Hussein and thus worthy of the title “Saddam’s Succesor”.
UPDATE:
Jeff Goldstein offers further thoughts on Talibani’s appointment.
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