THE SADDAM SAGA
 
 
The Saddam Hussein saga is thought provoking in a number of ways. Humanity has taken so many twists and turns in the pages of history yet it seems to be at the same spot where it started from and has hardly learnt a lesson from it.
 
 Philip Marchand’s article in IDEAS, in the Toronto Star of 31st December 2006, shows how the truth may be revealed by investigative websites like ‘Smoking gun’,  which exposed the supposedly true events narrated by James Fry in his bestseller
A million little pieces. James Fry was quite enthusiastically promoted by Opera Winfrey, that may have contributed to the book becoming so popular. He was however, later on interviewed by Larry King, who thrashed out with James Fry the whole background. The Fry scandal revealed how he had changed facts in his writing to present himself as an innocent person who was exploited by the system. The Marchand article goes on to say that many notable literary figures as Truman Capote, in his 1966 non-fiction book In Cold Blood, and Farley Mowat, in many of books on the far north have been caught cheating on facts.
 
Distortion of facts in order to promote ones own ideas, is not limited to fiction or non-fiction alone. It is even notable in historic accounts and narratives. Depending on who or which side is writing the history, the hue will be shaded by the tinge of the narrator. However truthful an account may be it is very difficult to remain purely objective as the influence of time and age or at least the psychology of it cannot be completely avoided and the historian of the period is part of the age and era. Since history is usually written by the victor the vanquished’s point of view is mostly invisible or suppressed. The point of view of the superior of the two competing powers, not necessarily the better, is more forcefully projected. The broad general lesson history gives is how power manipulates and subjugates the other.
 
Mr. Tariq Fateh’s opinion in the Toronto Star of January 3, 2007 looks at the scenario of how Saddam Hussein may become a martyr and be absolved of his sins by this hurried enactment of justice. He further says that the reason of this rushed sentence was the fear of exposition of many unpleasant facts if the next trial was allowed to continue. Whether Saddam becomes a martyr or not is not the idea, the point is that as per the laws of ‘ Cause and Effect’ there is bound to be an aftermath of the incident, only how?  and what?  will come out of it is to be seen. The result cannot be categorically ascertained because the variables in the equation are many and they are all dynamic in nature. 
 
It often seems that the rulers are too busy planning the destiny of the people that they forget their own. When in power they are involved in conniving to lead the populace and to manipulate and maneuver them in a direction of their choosing. They count on people’s short memories and limited power. On a singular basis this may be so but on a collective basis the populace is strong both in memory and force. If the tide shifts and goes against the grain of the nature of a nation, then instead of being cowed down they can react and bring down the rulers and their governments. This is the other lesson which history teaches, but it is most often overlooked or ignored by the blindness of ambition and the avarice of power in the ruling houses of the world.  The lessons learnt by humanity of good prevailing over evil are not taught by the history of the victor as much as by the fortitude and perseverance of the vanquished.  They are learnt from a study of the internal desire of promoting the spirituality of the human nature, one of the basic instincts of survival, perhaps stronger and more resilient than the instinct of destruction and subjugation. 
 
No web site is needed to get to the truth of the times only some patience and search based on the basic principles of ‘Cause and Effect’  can suffice.
 
 
Ziauddin Ahmed                 January 3, 2007