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Re: [casi] By the beard of the Manical Dictator - querying theSaddam captured images.



Dear 'ppg'

I did say 'and I value' people's newspaper cuttings. And I do. Since I
stopped trawling the papers to put together my own news mailings I've found
the material forwarded by you and by Andreas and others very useful and
often very well spotted (choosing an article that's worth forwarding is an
art in itself). And I'm keeping a little private archive of this together
with the weekly RFE mailing and Juan Cole's blog (and Jo Wilding. And
Riverbend. There is quite a lot of interesting stuff out there).

I'm also intrigued by your 'tinyurls'. I don't know what that system is but
it seems to work very well.

My remark about throwing things into the void was a bit of bad temper on my
part and I apoogise for it. Though I do think we should all work harder at
getting an exchange of opinions going as opposed to just putting out our own
thoughts and observations. If that is a criticism it applies to me as much
as to anyone.

Best wishes

Peter


> From: "ppg" <ppg@nyc.rr.com>
> Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 17:35:03 -0500
> To: "Peter Brooke" <pbrooke@ukonline.co.uk>, <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: [casi] By the beard of the Manical Dictator - querying the
Saddam
> captured images.
>
> "We get (and I
> value) a large number of forwarded newspaper cuttings but hardly any actual
> original thinking." --Peter
>
> Mea culpa.  However you write,
>
> "But right at this moment I have the feeling that sending anything to this
> list is sending it into the void"--Peter
>
> With this I disagree.  Very many of the observations, and most of the
> 'information' I read here are passed on to a wide US audience. Do not fear
> you are posting into a 'void'.  pg
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter Brooke" <pbrooke@ukonline.co.uk>
> To: <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk>
> Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 5:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [casi] By the beard of the Manical Dictator - querying the
> Saddam captured images.
>
>
>> Dear Per and list
>>
>>> This situation is like something out of bad satire: the people of Iraq
>>> is in urgent need of our attention, wholly at the mercy of the policies
>>> of our politicians, who are not accountable to them in any way. This
>>> list exists for the discussion of how we can address this situation, but
>>> instead it's a place for the discussion of the size of Saddam's
>>> moustache.  Monty Python couldn't have come up with anything more
> absurd.
>>
>>
>> Those who object to the poor quality of the list at present would be on
>> stronger ground if they themselves would send mailings that identify
>> important issues and reflect on them in an intelligent manner. We get (and
> I
>> value) a large number of forwarded newspaper cuttings but hardly any
> actual
>> original thinking.
>>
>> Per is certainly capable of this, as witness his letter to the BBC
>> complaining about the way they represented the end of the Oil for Food
>> programme. But even this was not sent to the list by him (it was sent by
>> Daniel on Nov 25). Mike Lewis is also capable of it and so is Colin Rowat.
>> Yet if I'm not mistaken the only substantial mailings any of them have
> sent
>> since the invasion have been complaints about Tom. Which is a curious
> thing
>> in itself when all of them are of the opinion that Tom's thoughts are not
>> worth bothering with.
>>
>> I have recently mailed an argument in favour of supporting Grand Ayatollah
>> Sistani's call for a rapid move to elections; and one pointing to our
> Prime
>> Minister's claim that 400,000 bodies have already been discovered in mass
>> graves (that IS what he said) as a travesty of what is known on this
> subject
>> - a statement which shows much the same mentality as the irresponsible
>> statements about weapons of mass destruction made prior to the war. I am
>> also trying to enter into some sort of discussion with Muhammad and Yasser
>> on whether or not a tribunal established by the IGC can have any
> credibility
>> (Hassan Zeini has also mailed on this subject). And I have tried to get
> some
>> sort of focus on the reality of Iraqi culture by drawing attention to the
>> fact that there is among the Shi'ites a system of law with a respectable
>> intellectual pedigree that is up and running and is probably the most
>> important factor at the present time preventing an even greater slide into
>> anarchy. None of these have so far attracted any interest though they seem
>> to me to be important issues. The only thing I have mailed that has
>> stimulated a reaction has been my remark in support of Tom on the subject
> of
>> Saddam Hussein's moustache.
>>
>> The CASI analysis list has been established to try to get more high
> quality
>> discussion through tighter monitoring, and there is a project for an
>> improved website on similar lines. I have been trying to get some idea of
>> the focus for these projects and of the topics that will be considered
>> appropriate for them. So far I have failed but this might emerge over time
>> once the people who have been refraining from posting to the rambling and
>> anarchic discussion list start posting to the tighter analysis list.
>>
>> At any rate I suppose that the size of Saddam Hussein's moustache will not
>> be considered an appropriate subject, but since we are still on the
>> rambling, anarchic list, I might remark that the point under consideration
>> is bushiness. The degree of bushiness is not revealed in the full frontal
>> photos given by the BBC; it is revealed in the three quarter views given
> by
>> Tom. This does not constitute evidence as to whether or not the photos are
>> of Saddam himself or of a lookalike. My own speculation, if there's
> anything
>> in it (and it may well be a trick of the light. But it doesn't look like
>> one) is that whether it was Saddam or a lookalike they wanted it to look
>> like Saddam and so probably touched up the photograph when they saw that
> the
>> moustache did not look right.
>>
>> However interpreted the whole disgusting spectacle is a gross violation of
>> the terms of the Geneva convention (the one our leaders evoked when they
>> complained about Al Jazeera photos of dead US and British soldiers) and a
>> monstrous way of treating a captive head of state (I seem to remember in
> one
>> of my news mailings commenting on the regret George Bush must feel that he
>> is no longer living in an age where he could use the captive emperor as a
>> footstool for mounting his horse. I have also been put in mind of William
>> Blake's great painting of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar). For myself
> I
>> think that getting some sort of coherent understanding of what Saddam
>> Hussein is/was is a matter of the first importance and I would like to set
>> about it (and would welcome help from those who detest him. The best
>> polemicist against Saddam Hussein I have seen over the past few weeks has
>> been Jo Wilding).
>>
>> But right at this moment I have the feeling that sending anything to this
>> list is sending it into the void.
>>
>> Yours
>>
>> Peter
>>
>>
>>
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>
>


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