regardless of whether you were for or against the war, you had to get a kick out of the Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf (MSS). i mean, this guy made mr. rogers' land of make-believe seem, well, downright believable.
the way MSS colored the events of the war to support his hallucinatory vision of Iraqi dominance has already become the commentary of legend. MSS put the "spin" in spin, the "slant" in slant, and the "twist" in twist.
MSS could look you in the eye with the barrel of a gun pointing right in his face and say, "i've got you right where i want you." and he made his ludicrous assertions with such conviction that he actually made you second guess what was really going on.
some clever folks have now posted a website in MSS's honor at WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com. check it out if you can get to it (traffic has crashed its servers off and on the last few days). the site provides a collection of MSS's most outlandish statements.
some of the classics:
"Our initial assessment is that they will all die"
"We have destroyed 2 tanks, fighter planes, 2 helicopters and their shovels - We have driven them back."
"We have them surrounded in their tanks"
"I triple guarantee you, there are no American soldiers in Baghdad."
"We will kill them all........most of them."
"they are nowhere near the airport ..they are lost in the desert...they can not read a compass...they are retarded."
"Our estimates are that none of them will come out alive unless they surrender to us quickly."
"We have retaken the airport. There are NO Americans there. I will take you there and show you. IN ONE HOUR!"
"Yes, the american troops have advanced further. This will only make it easier for us to defeat them"
"You can go and visit those places. Nothing there, nothing at all. There are Iraqi checkpoints. Everything is okay."
ok then, Don Quixote, just keep slaying those giants . . .
