By Arthur Weinreb
Monday, January 1, 2007
Back in the olden days when times were less complicated, the news that the death sentence that had been pronounced against Saddam Hussein had been carried out would have led to even the most skeptical among us to refer to him as "the late Iraqi dictator". But in today's high tech world of computers and You Tube, nothing is ever taken at face value. Nothing can possibly happen that can't be the subject of conspiracy theories or skepticism. In the days and weeks to come we will no doubt hear about how the Butcher of Baghdad still walks among us.
The official Iraqi government video of Saddam's last moments certainly did nothing to dispel the notion that the former Iraqi dictator shuffled off to paradise early Saturday morning. The video not stopped right after the rope was placed around his neck but the last frame was frozen. It doesn't take much imagination to picture what happened next. After the director yelled, "cut", the rope was removed and Saddam and his executioners all stood around laughing, telling George Bush jokes and smoking cigars. Before long it was time to whisk Saddam off to his palatial mansion in Syria where he has been living since he escaped Baghdad back in March 2003. If the government video was meant to bolster the fact that Saddam was indeed executed, it failed miserably.
The fact that Saddam made good use of his many doubles during his time as Iraq's leader will undoubtedly provide fodder for those who wish to believe that he is still with us. In the end, Saddam Hussein may be harder to kill off than any of those white-hat wearing cowboys in the movies ever were.
It has now become trendy to simply deny certain events (such as the death of Elvis) or explain them away by devising various conspiracy theories. The recent spate of conspiracy theories began with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. While it was somewhat difficult to believe that the popular president could be taken down by a whacko loner like Lee Harvey Oswald, theories abounded that Kennedy was killed by everyone from Lyndon Johnson to Fidel Castro to the CIA. At least many of those who propounded these theories never completely lost touch with reality as many conspiracy theorists in recent years have done.
The next major conspiracy theory surfaced in 1969 after the lunar landing. Some people genuinely believed that Neil Armstrong's "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" was actually spoken on a movie set somewhere in the deserts of Arizona. It was all just a ploy. The fact that people could fly to the moon, walk on its surface and return to Earth was simply too much for some people to comprehend.
The mother of conspiracy theories has to be some of the scenarios that many believe transpired on September 11, 2001. Even before the second plane hit the World Trade Centre, we knew the "Mossad did it" theory was on its way. But some of the theories that have been advanced are simply bizarre. One has the U.S. government imploding the twin towers while damaging the Pentagon with a cruise missile. If this is true, then where are all the passengers that set out that morning on the doomed planes? The conspiracy theorists have an answer to that - they're on a deserted island somewhere, no doubt being serenaded by Elvis while waiting for Saddam to show up with the scotch so the party can really begin.
As bizarre as some of these theories are, they pale in comparison to the number of people who actually believe that Elvis is still alive. Polls taken in the United States put the percentage of people who believe that the King did not die on August 16, 1977 at between 9 and 11 per cent. It is sad to think that there are that there are so many people out there living such mundane lives that that they cannot accept the fact that they live in a world in which Elvis Presley no longer exists.
In the days and weeks ahead, we will be hearing all about how Saddam is still alive; how the video was faked; how the body that was photographed was that of one of his many doubles. People will have different reasons for wanting to believe that the former Iraqi leader is still alive but the end result will be the same. Saddam, like Elvis will live.
And it will only be a matter of time before Saddam is spotted working at a Burger King in Michigan, perhaps even cooking up fries for the King to serve.
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