November 27, 2005

Give Me That Old Time Religion

Hatched by Dafydd

Uh oh, now we're really going to get it!

In another bizarre twist, the pitiful remnants of the Baath Party in Iraq have remade themselves as -- holy warriors. Mujahideen. They have changed the name of their party from the Arab Socialist Baath Party to the Arab Baath al-Takfireen: a.k.a., "Arab Bath Moslems-who-declare-fellow-Moslems-to-be-infidels." I'm guessing their new rallying cry will be God is Great! Let us fight holy war to put that socialist atheist back on the throne!

Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, has gone into full panic mode, wailing:

"This is very dangerous. These people now have broader appeal among angry Iraqis and money from Arabs in regional states," he told Reuters in an interview.

"It could take years to defeat them."

Oy vey ismier! What will we do now? Forgive my flippancy, but I have a hard time buying the idea that Iraqis will be fooled into thinking that the anti-Islamic secular internationalst socialists of the Baath Party have suddenly got that old time religion. Religious Sunni and Shia are about as likely to follow the Baathists into jihad as the College of Cardinals are to elect Ted Kennedy Pope, or the Navy to give command of an aircraft carrier to Captain Kangaroo. The Baathists are Islamists like President Nixon was a Quaker.

Here is the timeline of events, as limned by Michael Georgy of Reuters:

Saddam and his pan-Arab socialist Baath party imposed secularism in Iraq throughout decades of iron-fisted rule. Muslim militants either kept their beliefs to themselves or were jailed, or worse.

But Islamic fundamentalism has gained a foothold since a U.S.-led invasion toppled the former president in 2003, with a proliferation of Sunni Arab militants opposed to the Shi'ite- led government backed by Washington. [It's all Bush's fault that there are now Moslems all over Iraq.]

FROM SOCIALISTS TO HOLY WARRIORS

Al Qaeda stepped in, forming loose alliances with Saddam's former Baathists as the insurgency evolved into daily suicide bombings and assassinations that have killed tens of thousands of civilians and security forces.

Shockingly enough, Reuters found occasion to forget that the Shia were already Islamists by most definitions before Saddam fell; that Saddam was already kowtowing to the Islamic Fundamentalists -- by changing Iraq's flag to include the words "Allahu Akbar," for example, as far back as 1991; and that there were already extensive contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda even in Saddam's day. I'm sure over the next few days, they'll find occasion to forget that we did, in fact, find WMD in Iraq, and that Saddam was butchering the Iraqis to the tune of 12,500 per year or 125,000 per year, depending whose figures you believe.

"By embracing militant Islam, Saddam's people have appealed to fellow anti-American Muslims who also want the American troops to leave." [trembled Mowaffaq al-Rubaie]

Saddam, whose trial resumes on Monday, first appeared before his judges clutching an old Koran in his hand. Officials who met Saddam before the last session said he appeared demoralised.

But the national security adviser does not hold the same view of his followers, who are armed with much more than zeal in their new holy war.

"They have very good intelligence," he said.

I was planning to go see Chicken Little tomorrow, but why bother? I can save $8.50 X 2 by just staying home and reading more of the mainstream media.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 27, 2005, at the time of 5:19 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Bill Faith

Very interesting post, Dafydd. I wore out and ended up just linking from my "Sunday Night" Quick Hits post.

The above hissed in response by: Bill Faith [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 28, 2005 1:23 AM

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