Saturday, January 06, 2007

 

Making friends and influencing people, Bush unites Middle East

Saddam Hussein was made into "a martyr" by the manner of his execution, the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, warned today, saying he had urged Washington not to hang him during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. ... Mr Mubarak said ...."Don't do it at this time,"... "Why is it necessary to hang (him) just at the time when people are saying the holiday prayers?" Mr Mubarak, who was interviewed at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheik ahead of a meeting there with the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who also condemned the manner in which Saddam was put to death.... "I'm not going to say whether Saddam deserved the death penalty or not," Mr Mubarak said. "I'm also not going to go into the question of whether that court is legal under the occupation. "When all's said and done, nobody will ever forget the circumstances and the manner in which Saddam was executed. They have made him into a martyr, while the problems within Iraq remain." Egypt is a key US ally in the Middle East... Is? Or was?
Comments:
It was only Eid if you're a Sunni.

I think a big part of the timing was to send the message that the Sunni religious calendar doesn't count; certainly not in Shi'ite-theocracy-on-training-wheels Iraq.
 
Eli, this could be a problem given that all of our allies in the Middle East and the overwhelming majority of all Muslims are Sunni Arabs.

Maybe Riverbend is right, that Bush is trying to create the largest and most toxic mess possible.
 
I think Bush's intent to do just that has been pretty clear for quite some time...
 
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