Showing Respect to a Hero: President George W. Bush – Kitabat of Iraq

With all of the derision being pointed in President Bush’s direction from almost every region of the world, the last place one would expect to read an article praising him is an Iraqi newspaper.

Of course in this case, we are talking about controversial Iraqi writer Khadir Taahar, perhaps the most pro-American op-ed writer in that country. In this article published in Iraqi newspaper Kitabat, Taahar heaps such praise on President Bush, it’s enough to make Paul Wolfowitz blush.

After excoriating his fellow countrymen for their ‘herd mentality’ and before suggesting that it’s time for Iraqis to erect a statue of President Bush in Baghdad’s central square, Taahar writes in part:

“Both individually and collectively, Iraq’s political mind must assess the Bush era objectively, by virtue of the fact that this man played a major role in writing a new history for our nation. We have lived through a period that not only saw the end of Saddam’s criminal regime, but the establishment of a comprehensive, socio-political transformation. One of the most salient features of this change has been for the majority of people, successfully breaking free of the myths, idols and influence of the clerics and Islamic parties. For the first time in Iraq’s modern history, people are permitted to publicly criticize religious institutions and clerics, discuss their backwardness, their lies, their thievery and their opportunism. This historic civilizational success would not have occurred if President Bush had not liberated Iraq.”

By Khadir Taahar

Translated By James Jacobson

December 23, 2008

Arabic – Iraq – Original Article (Arabic)

When will we acknowledge the debt that we owe him and erect a statue of President George W. Bush?

It’s regrettable that the collective behavior of Iraqis isn’t always rational, logical or wise, since our society is most often characterized by herd-like, demagogical behavior and attempts to alienate voices and movements that oppose ideological exclamations and aggressive sloganeering

The process of evaluating President George W. Bush’s achievements, particularly the liberation of Iraq from slavery and genocide, requires a great deal of rationality, realism and the ridding oneself of the influence of hostile slogans and false accusations. One must avoid the use of these as instruments of analysis, since such intellectual and ideological projections distort reality.

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