The AP is out with a small profile on Saddam Hussein and sure enough they managed to get in a blurb that falls minutely short of painting him as a popular figure in their closing paragraph.
While he wielded a heavy hand to maintain control, Saddam also sought to win public support with a personality cult that pervaded Iraqi society. Thousands of portraits, posters, statues and murals were erected in his honor all over Iraq. His face could be seen on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports and shops and on Iraq’s currency.
What was the point of closing out an otherwise well written article with the above statement? Does the reporter actually believe that the Iraqi people made the decision to put Saddam's mug on the currency or that they erected statues out of something other than fear?
Don’t forget that Saddam Hussein received something like 100% of the polls in the 2002 "referendum" that granted him another seven years of power. Sure, none of the families of the millions killed in his name or the hundreds of thousands of people who have been reported to have been starved, tortured and brutalized by those loyal to Saddam bothered to come out and vote against him - he was a damn likable guy.
The AP deserves an honorable mention on the wall of shame for this kind of mindless drivel. The only problem is that they have been party to so much similar nonsense in the past that there is little room on that wall for this latest entry.
This article is drawn from a similar report on Webloggin.
