Once again we had a glimpse of Mohamed Said Al-Sahhaf, not as Iraq's information minister, and not as a plastic doll mocking the man who promised the Americans a sad end in Baghdad, but as a face on Al-Arabiya Channel, and a changed man. Stripped of power Al-Sahhaf was a changed person. His hair was grey, his features sad, and his voice broke as he fielded a new type of questions. He answered in a timid, tentative tone, as he described his feelings as an Iraqi citizen on the night Baghdad fell. Trying hard to avoid the word "occupation", Al-Sahhaf had little to say.
The truth will have to wait, just as millions of Iraqi families now await news of missing relatives.
Waiting is a game our governments perfected. Truth is something we can only guess at, and it comes in unexpected forms and at unexpected times. It came once in the shape of Egyptian planes, burnt on the ground in 1967. It came once in the form of Palestinian refugees trekking off to uncertainty in 1948. We are still haunted by images of the breakdown of the Egyptian-Syrian union, of the conspiracies that once led to the Baghdad pact, of Arab infighting in Black September, and of empty polling stations that give 99 per cent mandates for our high and mighty.
Watching Al-Sahhaf speak in tones of remorse, one wonders: what about the sins that cannot be washed away, committed by a regime of which he was part? He was just carrying out orders, he said, with not even a hint of wit.
This week's Soapbox speaker is a broadcaster with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Radio.
Once again we had a glimpse of Mohamed Said Al-Sahhaf, not as Iraq's information minister, and not as a plastic doll mocking the man who promised the Americans a sad end in Baghdad, but as a face on Al-Arabiya Channel, and a changed man. Stripped of power Al-Sahhaf was a changed person. His hair was grey, his features sad, and his voice broke as he fielded a new type of questions. He answered in a timid, tentative tone, as he described his feelings as an Iraqi citizen on the night Baghdad fell. Trying hard to avoid the word "occupation", Al-Sahhaf had little to say.
