editorial cartoons

US-appointed Iraqi judge (and head of Iraqi judiciary), Zuhair al-Maliki. charges Salem Chalabi, head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, with murder. Chalabi's job is to lay all the blame he can on Saddam. Saddam is happy to shout accusations at anybody in his path to the death chamber, the Shia having been a special target of his attentions. The Shia would like the Sunni majority neutralised. The Sunni can always blame the Kurds for causing trouble. The Kurds, and others, wan the new Iyad Allawi governments to acknowledge their plight. Allawi comes out against the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who continues to foment violence against the "infidels" and their Iraqi police stooges. They blame the insurgents. The "insurgents" (i.e. unemployed, suggestible Iraqi men with too easy access to assault weapons) see Dubya as the Great Satan, a re-embodied Crusader violating their lands. Bush blames anybody Uncle Dick tells him to. It's all someone else's fault in Iraq.
All this reminded me of Thomas Nast's well-known cartoon (well, at least to cartoon nerds) showing up the corruption in New York City's "Tammany Hall" local government.

The Guardian; Tuesday 10/08/04
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