David's Daily Diversions

“Smiles like split watermelons” That’s

“Smiles like split watermelons”

That’s how BBC political correspondent Andrew Marr described Tony Blair and his advisers in Downing Street watching today’s events in Iraq.

It would also be an accurate description of most of the Iraqi faces I saw on television.

I have to admit that I’m going to miss one other smiling face. Baghdad Bob, as the Information Minister of the former regime is affectionately known could spin the wildest yarns of how Saddam’s troops were utterly destroying the Coalition. He said it like he almost believed it.

The children of a friend of mine were confused by some of the images on television. They didn’t understand why people would be acting that way in response to the fall of the regime. My friend explained to them that Iraqis normally celebrate by carrying around TV sets and rolling tyres down the street. Must be a cultural thing.

Seriously, though, all of the looting, first in Basra and now in Baghdad, demonstrates the necessity of a visible police presence in society. This behaviour is not unique to Iraq or the Middle East. The same thing happens when there are blackouts in major cities. Or simply when living on a British council estate. There is a significant element in every society that is inherently lawless. In particular, they have no respect for property.

The only property for which I am glad there was no respect was the big statue of Saddam that was pulled down. I’m glad I was watching that live. It reminded me of scenes during the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, especially the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

Today I saw the iconology inherent in the human heart. Saddam made sure there were lots of pictures of himself hanging around. This was indicative of the veneration he desired from the Iraqi people. Likewise, the Iraqis took particular interest in tearing down these pictures. But it wasn’t enough to tear them down. They wanted to purposefully desecrate the images of their former tyrant. By kicking, punching, slapping, burning, urinating, and simulating certain sexual acts upon his face, they were in essence doing these things to the man himself.

I have to say that in that sense, Saddam got exactly what was coming to him.

And as the above-mentioned friend told his class of university students, “Today Baghdad – tomorrow Paris!” Anyone got any pictures of Jacques Chirac?