A Tale of Two Presidents

So. They 'got him' as Bremner so eloquently put it...

Indeed, it would appear that after thirty years of genocide, butchery, torture, gassing, billions of dollars of funding and almost twenty years of looking the other way, the armed forces of the United States got their hands on one Saddam Hussein.

Frankly, I wonder why they didn't save themselves a whole load of hassle by not giving him all that support in the first place. I found it quite amusing that Saddam, when he was finally apprehended, was accompanied by a briefcase containing $750,000. I am quite sure that the irony of this wasn't lost on him either.

Yesterdays' frenzied news broadcasts gave us images of two of the most famous (or infamous, if you like) men in the world: the President of the United States and the deposed President of Iraq. Two more different pictures you could not have got. One a bearded, humiliated, clearly befuddled old man, the other the picture of smug happiness. Yet these two men have so much in common it's alarming.

Both have killed. Both have used nepotism, corruption and mendacity to get to where they want. Both have hilariously flouted the most basic principles of democracy to secure victory in 'elections'. Both men have used horrific violence in the interest of 'national security', all the while avioding any personal involvement in armed conflict whilst sending countless others to their death.

I wonder, now that the great U.S. -Iraqi game is nearing the end, what these two men would have to say to each other. About their fathers. About their children. About their desires, motivations, fears, hatreds and histories.

It is a fascinating notion: The international bogey-man and the Global Village Idiot. It is a conversation that I should very much like to hear.