CAIRO: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his coterie have been hurling verbal abuse at the United States and Britain at a level never before heard in Iraqi propaganda, perhaps reflecting their fear or frustration.

Traditional insults like "donkey" and "old shoe" have been uttered publicly along with baser vulgarities by Saddam, his son Odai Hussein and Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf. Even during the 1980-88 war with Iran, not a single Iraqi official publicly used such words to describe any Iranian leader.

"They are a gang of war criminals ... international bastards," al-Sahhaf said at a news conference in Baghdad on Saturday. "They lie day and night. They are not human."

In his speech on Thursday, Saddam called US President George W Bush a "petty criminal."

Odai was more impolite. In a message carried by the official Iraqi News Agency, he exhorted the people of Iraq to "strike hard to prove that we are the sons of good women and they (Americans and Britons) are the sons of adultery, dirt and bastards." Al-Sahhaf, the information minister, has been using similarly colourful language.

He told reporters that Britain "is not worth an old shoe," normally an insult about someone's intelligence or lack thereof. He used a vulgarity referring to a person's posterior to describe British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was "the dog."

Ali Abdel Amir, an Iraqi journalist who watches Iraqi affairs from neighboring Jordan, said that now that the war has started, the Iraqi leadership is dropping diplomatic niceties.

"They are terrified," he said. "When they discovered that they are going to lose power, the mask was dropped."

Source: The Times of India

Mamnoch, and I am NOT saying that I support Saddam Hussein's clique in any way, but the US and Britain just declared war against them, what did you expect ? Isn't war just a little bit about "dropping diplomatic niceties" or did I miss something ? ;)

I agree Claude, and would add: it should be obvious to all of us that Saddam Hussein is not mentally sane. It is GLARINGLY obvious from his conduct, his attitude, his history, that he is not completely right in the head and neither are his close cohorts, or they'd not be able to stick with him.
Foaming at the mouth over insults he slings in face of the Western World is just as silly and pointless as paying attention to the ravings of other madmen.
He hates everything western, he wants to be a tyrant over his country and he doesn't put up with any opposition. So when you invade his country, well DOH, what else should we expect than insults? Like I said, I pay as little attention to what he says as I do to the average lunatic. And I think that the media's attention to it is not doing any good either. I agree the public needs to be kept informed but this is just petty.

Did anyone see the Iraqi Ambassador to the UN's attack against the Secretary General yesterday? He went off with complaint after complaint stretching back through the entire 12 history of the ceasefire.

Mel, great to see you back ! http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...ons/icon10.gif

Good point too. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Keep in mind that Saddam did not break down like this during Desert Storm. 12 years ago he still managed to keep what is left of his mind. This time he hasn't.

And this time it is more threatening to him.