Smokescreens
Sinan Antoon watches Iraq's satellite channel
There is plenty of smoke these days. Not only in the skies over Baghdad, Basra and other Iraqi cities, but in Washington as well. For the hawks' bright horizons, painted with the brush of hubris and racism, are proving to be opaque and ominous, at best.
The cheering and dancing Iraqis, promised by the likes of Kanan Makiya -- who has written in his war diary that "the sound of bombs is music to his ears" -- and by other Iraqi Uncle Toms posing as dissidents in the US, have yet to materialise. Nor have Iraqi troops surrendered en masse to the invading "liberators". Fear of execution squads awaiting defectors and the ruthlessness of Saddam's fida'iyyin have been cited in Washington and echoed in hawkish circles as reasons for those non-events. However, there are also other equally important factors to be taken into consideration.
Iraqi nationalism is certainly one of them. Why is it that at a time when America is one gigantic carnival of nationalism and patriotism, the hawks expect Iraq to be devoid of any nationalist sentiments of its own? On the phantasmic ideological screen filtering and naturalising reality for the hawks, Iraqis were assigned one simple role: to appear as grateful, liberated objects thirsting for the American Dream.
Luckily, every ideological screen has a glitch, and at times a sizable one, and reality can pierce through at any moment. Thus, we have many Iraqis who are, surprise, surprise, capable of the dual abhorrence of both Saddam and of our latest invaders. Isn't it only natural for most Iraqis to distrust and detest a US (and Iraq's former coloniser, the UK) that supported the tyrant who oppressed them, destroyed their infrastructure and then imposed a blockade on them for more than 12 years, killing one million people?
Not many Iraqis are, or will be, willing to occupy the position of the "liberated" to fulfil the latest American fantasy. There is only one category for American soldiers in the Iraqi psyche, and it is that of invader.
Saddam, on the other hand, is about to suffer his own terminal glitch. One of many symptoms of this is discernible on Iraq's satellite channel, which is still stubbornly functioning despite several bombings. The Rumsfeld justification for bombing the TV station is that it disseminates propaganda ... As if CNN and Fox were havens of objectivity! A flock of green dots dominates the transmission every now and then, indicating the imminent end of the show. One can safely say that Iraqi State TV is one thing Iraqis will not miss in a Saddamless future.
Having spent my formative years in the Iraq of the 1970s and 1980s, I speak as one of its many victims. In those pre-VCR days, it was one of many spaces where Saddam's personality cult was painfully visible as it reached its apex in the years of the Iraq-Iran War (1980-1988).
Every evening at 8pm, both channels would show the leader's daily activities (Channel II in English) and broadcast his speeches and meetings. This would be followed by songs and/or poetry in praise of the Father-Leader. Just in case one happened to be busy or away from the screen, at 10pm, the whole spiel was repeated! A common joke back then crystallised it all: when a curious Iraqi turned on the TV in the early hours of the morning, he saw Saddam fast asleep.
So, after purchasing a satellite dish to keep abreast of the news, I couldn't help but tune in, for old times' sake. I must say that I find the Iraqi regime's designation of the war as ma'rakat al-hawaasim, the decisive battle, which is a permanent fixture on the upper-right-hand corner of Iraqi TV, less absurd than its American equivalent, "Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Since the invasion began, Iraqi announcers have all donned khaki outfits. The news usually shows footage of Saddam's meetings with his ministers and officers, followed by any available footage from the battlefield, such as of abandoned or destroyed vehicles and weaponry, or of the effects of bombing on Iraqi cities. Some of Al-Jazeera's footage is also replayed. There is extensive attention as well to the global anti-war movement and the demonstrations.
In the absence of meetings with Saddam, or of statements or press conferences by this or that minister, longish letters or favourable editorials published abroad are read rather slowly. The news is followed by one of many kitschy songs praising Saddam, or by a poem. It seems that only a few of the songs were hastily produced right before or during the invasion. The rest are old. The most popular song, it seems, is entitled 'afya (well done!), praising all sectors of Iraqi society, naming them one by one, and spurring them on to keep fighting.
Not surprisingly, the footage accompanying the songs is of Saddam -- firing a shotgun, saluting the troops, kissing children, receiving gifts, unsheathing a sword, riding his white horse, and, my favourite, swimming in the river (yes, the leader is still healthy), and so on. No wonder an Arab media critic recently suggested awarding Iraq's satellite channel "most boring" prize, and deservedly so. And no wonder that only a month before the war, Saddam decided that it would not be in the interest of Iraqis to have unfettered access to foreign satellite channels.
As in previous wars, Iraqi TV also features short statements by Iraqis on the street expressing their support of the troops and vowing to resist the invasion. One can also catch glimpses of interviews with some of the foreigners still in Baghdad, mostly peace activists, but also some journalists. There was one with two Italian journalists who "lost" their way to Baghdad, and another with NBC's Peter Arnett, which cost him his job. How dare he speak to the enemy?
Absurd as it may sound, the only thing we can be sure of is that, while he dyes his hair on a regular basis, Saddam has never had plastic surgery. Watching footage from different wars and songs, one notices how he's aged. The question on the minds of many Iraqis is whether Saddam will be celebrating his birthday this year, which falls on 28 April. And will there still be an Iraqi satellite channel to wish him happy birthday?
But I'm afraid that, Saddam or not, we will then be busy counting our dead and looking through the rubble for our tomorrow. Let's just hope that Iraqis will not get rid of Saddam and his TV and have instead a cloned Iraqi CNN or Fox channel parroting American fantasies.
