A storm in a tea cup - some of the posts here are.... And the wisdom of some of those who have passed caustic comments does leave a lot to be desired.
But who is ultimately responsible for this tragedy - Saddam or the Western Powers whom he turned against...???
Could Saddam have reached the heights that Nasser had - probably YES! But only if he had the same counsel of wise men. To copy a dialouge from the Lawrence of Arabia "So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel" and that is what happened with Saddam. Had we had a T E Lawrence in our time He would have said and turned Saddam - Not For Gold; Not For The World - But For Saddam's own Pleasure!
This is not a battle of the so called "Christian Good" vs "Arab Evil" but one of human greed and pettiness and need for dominance. If only we had supported Saddam's nation building and encouraged him to - for his pleasure only - scale the heights of Pan Arab nationalism he would have now appeared far less barbarous than Saudi King Abdullah. The world - The US / UK / India / China / The Arab states should shoulder the blame of events transpired
Inaccuracy in the last line... it was not Marie Antoinette but Mary Queen of Scots who said "En ma fin est mon commencement" i.e. " In my end is my beginning".
The theme of this article seems to be "naive arabs vs clever westerners". Sunnis and Shias were hell bent on destroying each other for centuries. If they sought to buy weapons in a pre-sanctions era, I can't see how Bhadrakumar blames westerners for that. Prosperity has been achieved in many countries minus brutality. To gloss over brutality and murder by a diplomat to boot, is revolting. "Indian housemaids were repeatedly raped" he says and yet blames western governments for delivering what surely the Indian government would have wanted had they the wherewithal. No one should have any sympathy for Saddam. We all should perhaps dispute the means used by America and George Bush in particular to achieve these goals but to justify Saddam's actions to spite the US actions is utter stupidity. I can't believe we appoints such folks as our diplomats to foreign governments.
RE:Naive Arabs vs Clever Westerners
by Rao on Jan 08, 2007 01:33 AM Permalink
Well ma'am As a briton and one who should know democratic values better, u must understand everyone is entitled to have their opinion and it has nothing to do with what others think or what position he/she holds.
It is none of your business to question the credibility of out diplomats. If you like to read and hear what you would like to hear, then please visit your CNN's and BBC's, who give their biased views and make a story which will swell your false pride.
RE:Naive Arabs vs Clever Westerners
by Rahul on Jan 03, 2007 09:44 PM Permalink
India's foreign policy is BRILLIANT, far above the understanding of some mere mortals. There is a simple logic "If the Output is right, the input has to be right". In the last 10-15 years the world has changed from USSR & USA to only USA. Where do we find India here, we are prospering better than before. We have good relations with all. Basically we are more or less neutral and minding our own Business. Whats the problem in becoming another Switzerland with one of largest economy and largest military, if not anything else, in the near future.
As a Briton with a keen interest in Indian affairs, I read Mr. Bhadrakumar's article with interest as I expected great insight from a former Ambassador. Halfway through this article, however, I had to stop and do a double-take, as I couldn't believe what I was reading. This person seems to be an avid advocate for Arab interests, over and above those of India! If these are his personal feelings, he should have recused himself from his Indian Ambassadorship and sought Arab citizenship. On reading his other articles, I couldn't believe that someone who had such pronounced biases was allowed to set Indian foreign policy in the countries he was Ambassador in! Are you Indians utter fools to have people like this as your diplomats?
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by Sanjay Jamdade on Jan 11, 2007 09:23 PM Permalink
but what about the westerns companies that sold chemical weapons to saddam? and what about the millions of children in iraq who died in iraq during the oil embargo? What about his impeccable credentials as a secularist? I know nither Bhadrakumar nor Saddam but Since you put it that way you got to clear your stand. For a long time saddam and osama were western puppets. When they refused to dance to western tunes that the anti saddam tirade began. Saddam was a western creation not Bhadrakumars.
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by Abdul on Jan 03, 2007 03:25 PM Permalink
Julia, you have shown your true color. This is what Britons are. Briton n US have fallen below their grades to achieve their goals. I say its with the help of US/Brit that Saddam got the chemical weapons n you people used Saddam to get the job done. God is watchin n its matter of time that US n Briton is punished for their deeds. Coz evry Kingdom has its end.
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by Mehul on Jan 03, 2007 03:13 PM Permalink
Yes He was! He is just giving his views on the observations that he has made for that Man (Saddam) and his country.
Any question his intelligence and thoughts. Why? Because he wrote something that you dont want to read and accept and let others in world know of your intentions and motives of going to war.
And anyways he was giving his thoughts in line of some American scholar Noam Chomsky's writings...
My question is, is the Indian Ambassador a fool or the American Scholar a fool?
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by didmitrios on Jan 03, 2007 02:26 PM Permalink
I ditto your sentiment. This is horrifying but true. Sadly our foreign affairs are largely controlled by people who put the interersts of other countries (read Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Pakistan and other anti American and fundamentalist nations) and their own narrow selfish mitives above the country's general interest. That is precisely why India finds itself at the nadir in terms of foreign affairs. We are currently being ruled by people of specific ideologies who have their own narrow selfish motives in upholding the cause for specific nations. And our bureaucracy is moulded in the same pattern. But that need not be the sentiment of common people.
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by Md. Yazed Alam Khan on Jan 04, 2007 12:35 PM Permalink
Yes Julia, you are absolutely right. Indian politicians, not only the diplomats are in general very selfish and do have vested interests in steering the country's foreign affairs. We Indians know it very well, but, what can we do!!! If we raise our voice, we will be throttled and if we try to be united, it cannot be as we are either Hindus or Muslims or Sikhs or Isaiahs and so on.....In totality, one thing that I can spell upon: In order to raise your head, you must be of homogeneous origin otherwise you cannot shine....to many cooks spoil the soup...so we are very very self-complacent, as we should be and steering our own interest towards achieving our objectives, rather interfering with the affairs of the untrustworthy politicians.
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by arun on Jan 05, 2007 12:50 PM Permalink
dear Julia, wud u mind taking some time off and reading what the honourable prime minister of UK said about the WMD before and after the iraq war. go through it and then try to get a honourable prime minister in your home land rather than complaining about another countries diplomat.
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by pSSn hOMMe on Jan 11, 2007 02:28 PM Permalink
Julia, I have to say, with due regard, that lets not ask the wrong questions here. We all, at least with some common sense, can see the liars in Bush & Blair and party. I have no remorse for Saddam, but have great disregard for your leaders. The question you should be asking is " who gave you or the US the right to change regimes, bring democracy etc? You would do well to actually do some deep research learning how the British have destroyed this subcontinent with the partition of India & Pakistan? You should ask, how come Blair is your Prime Minister still after the grave lies he and Bush have told has claimed 680000 lives of Iraqis? You should ask why Saddam was hanged for 148 killings whereas Bush and Blair are directly responsible for 680000 killings (incl their own soldiers)?
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by shakil ahmed on Jan 12, 2007 09:04 PM Permalink
Have u read what I suggested..ur destructive history of imperialism?
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by sun on Jan 04, 2007 11:42 AM Permalink
julia sweetheart, on the first place even britonnnnes backed the war with the only reason of WMD not on the basis of who killed how many, american and british soldiers have killed hoardes of ppl in afghan & iraq and world over, so wht do u forget tht before commenting on ambassador of any country, u dont have a reason to judge the credibility of a person workin at any post unless you prove to be better than him/her...so shut yr mouth and read articles on whats the next 'oops' of britney spears. gotya!
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by AS on Jan 11, 2007 09:43 AM Permalink
Julia seems to be not knowing her boundaries while posting articles on the net. Or is it that truth is so hard to digest that she's addressed we Indians as "utter fools"? Grow up Julia; its high time we accept the truth. Who knows the terrorism of the Western world better than we Indians, who've slogged under the British rule for nearly two centuries. And this is one of the factors that we are able to empathize with the current situation in the Arab world.
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by Sanjay Jamdade on Jan 11, 2007 10:05 PM Permalink
The western world has got a Halo (manually) fixed to their heads. Their Pale skins automatically makes demi gods and godesses of them. What they speak becomes gospel truth. Their Aims,ambitions and goals should become the goals of the world. They should become the pacesetters.They should dictate who rules and when,where and how. They came as the East India Company and we should thank them for that. They mixed pig and cow fat on to cartridges and bullets in 1857 and we should thank them for that. They converted the entire north east to Christianity. They let loose thousands of motivated missionaries that are converting the entire chattisgarh to Christianity, demolished temples and built churches there(goa) but we should be secular and we should lick their boots for that. They killed few hundred women and children in Jalian wala baug and we should forgive them for that. They hanged Bhagat Singh, Sukhdeo and Rajguru (how boring)but we should over look that as an exaggeration. They used `divide and rule` but we should overlook that. They plundered and stole Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj`s sword, Tipu Sultans sword the Kohinoor Diamond but we should consider it a pleasure to gift the Queen precious stuff.They locked up Gandhi,Nehru, Savrkar and thousands of other people with perfect character in jails where some died. They started apartheid in South Africa which barely ended a decade ago. We needed your permission to even make salt(because we are utter fools remember!)Thanks Julia "Kingmaker" from thy pen floweth wisdom and mercy.We have decided to forget all your atrocities to mankind. Though every kingdom has an end I hope God forgets to end yours.Long live the queen!
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by pSSn hOMMe on Jan 11, 2007 02:28 PM Permalink
Julia, I have to say, with due regard, that lets not ask the wrong questions here. We all, at least with some common sense, can see the liars in Bush & Blair and party. I have no remorse for Saddam, but have great disregard for your leaders. The question you should be asking is " who gave you or the US the right to change regimes, bring democracy etc? You would do well to actually do some deep research learning how the British have destroyed this subcontinent with the partition of India & Pakistan? You should ask, how come Blair is your Prime Minister still after the grave lies he and Bush have told has claimed 680000 lives of Iraqis? You should ask why Saddam was hanged for 148 killings whereas Bush and Blair are directly responsible for 680000 killings (incl their own soldiers)?
RE:This man was an Indian Ambassador?
by ums iyer on Jan 10, 2007 02:24 PM Permalink
julia, i agree that a biased diplomat is a bad rep of the country. and as far as us being fools ... look what you have for a PM. cheers!
I have been following Middle easy crisis for some time now. I feel the author is right when he points out, the work done by saddam regime at one hand and his excesses against Kurds on the other hand. But then which regime has not done such crimes against humanity. United states in Vietnam, India In kashmir, Pakistan in NWFP, Etnic cleaning in Rawanda, when the world chose to look otherwise. The discussion and talk abt wht saddam did will go on- opnions and counter opinions. But what lacks in the opnions and prespective is that they do not have sufficent power and strength to affect the way this world conducts its dirty job.
RE:Well, to every coin there are two sides
by Manoj Sharma on Jan 11, 2007 05:51 PM Permalink
"India in kashmir".. antinational bathing himself in glory of so called fairness... going your ways some day India will in 1000 parts!!
I have always been a great admirer of Saddam. I had read many books about him. I believe that American rulers have taken the whole world for granted. I cannot understand how can America go ahead to take decisions to strike any country?Who has given the right to strike Afganistan? Such a bad player of politics....The brutuality should be questioned and waht is the the United nations doing??
RE:Savings by wife
by Raj Shukla on Feb 09, 2007 06:48 PM Permalink
U can got this if u pay this amount , if ur wife not covered under the income tax act.
