RE: The first hero of the war

From: Keith Elis (hagbard@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Sun Apr 13 2003 - 20:16:51 MDT

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    Anders Sandberg:

    > You might remember my speculation before the war
    > that Saddam was not that good at media manipulation.
    > The dear minister seems to have proven it

    His claims were, of course, mostly transparent to the West. I mean, his
    sound bites were juxtaposed with pictures of what was really going on.
    But I don't think he was expecting Al-Jazeera to 'CNN' him like they
    did. He flew off the handle at Al-Jazeera reporters on a few occasions
    for calling him out.

    There is a pervasive Arab meme associated with the preservation of
    'face'. In my experiences, even secularized Arabs will nearly always
    allow even their stiffest competition to save face. They will very
    rarely allow matters of business or politics to become matters of honor
    or dishonor. Lying in an attempt to preserve one's honor is often
    acceptable, and it is customary to simply play along, or avoid bringing
    up the truth. I suspect that al-Sahhaf was charged with preserving
    Saddam's honor in the Arab community and for the history books, and
    Al-Jazeera's lack of complicity was unexpected and not a little
    offensive. To be sure, Western aristocratic society boasts similar
    memes. There's an ESS there somewhere, I fathom.

    Keith



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