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Tue. Apr 01, 2003

Not Quite Dead Yet?

Not Quite Dead Yet? – Iraqi TV announced there would be a speech from Saddam at noon (EST), but in the end, “Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, not Saddam, delivered the televised statement which said, ’Long live our nation. God is great. And they will be the losers, the evil, the criminals.’”

C’mon, they’re not even trying anymore. Last week, they made an effort to cobble together a video speech by Saddam that had 67 jump cut edits. Since then, they’ve at least offered a series of silent movies of Saddam & Various Associates holding meetings of some type (though the one where they were all smiling like they’d just won the lottery was a bit bizarre).

One at least sensed a sincere effort to make it appear Saddam was still alive and in control. Now, they raise expectations, and then just fax it in. His nation is at war, and he can’t be troubled to even tape an appearance that would prove his status, even to crow about the POWs they hold or the suicide attacks they’ve launched. There’s clear doubt about his … health. In response, he sends out the second string.

That would seem to be an awfully weak response from a powerful dictator still alive and in control of a nation at war. To anyone watching, here or in Iraq.