Rivers Of Babel On

What can be more tragic than having to concede that the best commentary came from the stand-up comedians?

Ranee Sahaney

Updated on: 7 February 2024 7:06 pm

Rivers Of Babel On

LOOKBACK: THE YEAR OF WAR

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
Decapitation attacks aimed
at Saddam Hussein and
other leaders began on March
20. Baghdad fell on April 9.
US coalition casualties:
530 confirmed deaths,
including one of Indian origin,
till date. Iraq body count estimates: between 5,000
-7,000 civilian deaths.

Rivers of Babel On
“WHAT will follow will not be a repeat of any other conflict. It’ll be of a force and a scope and scale that has been beyond what we have seen.” These words from hawk-in-chief Donald Rumsfeld prefaced the war of the year. President George W. Bush would say “major combat operations” ended on May 1 but it wasn’t until US presidential envoy to Iraq Paul Bremer walked up to the podium as the year drew to a close to say “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him” that the US could claim the war had ended. But with their forces still facing hostilities, can the war against terror ever really end in Iraq or elsewhere?

WWW.COMICAL-ALI.COM

Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf emerged as a cult figure with his wild claims a la “My feelings, as usual, we will slaughter them all. God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis.” By
year’s end, there were books, DVDs, websites on ‘Comical Ali’.

STTAGING PVT LYNCH

The dramatic Black Hawk ‘rescue’ of Private Jessica Lynch turned out to be one of the most stunning pieces of news management gone awry. Allegations of the 19-year-old POW’s rape and torture by Iraqi forces were found to be, well, sexed up.

The Americans went ballistic when pictures of their PoWs were shown on television early on in the war. But the conscientious objections were thrown out of the window when the medical examination of the captured Saddam was aired.	THE WAR LEXICON The Iraq war gave new meaning to old words: ‘shock and awe’, ‘weapons of mass destruction’, ‘embedded journalists’. Tony Blair was nearly felled by David Kelly’s charges (reported by the BBC) that the Iraq threat had been ‘sexed up’.
(Main) Baghdad feels US fury on the second night of bombing; US Marines pull down a Saddam statue in the centre of the Iraqi capital

LOOKBACK
Ram Guha: Congress ! N. S. Jagannathan: BJP ! Ian Berry, Elizabeth Dalizel, Ami Vitale and Steve McCurry: Freezeframe ! C. Rajamohan: Foreign Policy ! Ayaz Memon: Cricket ! War ! Terror ! Corruption ! Showing The Way ! Cricket ! Rest of Sport ! News Breakers ! The Milestones ! The Books ! Leisure And Entertainment ! Dubious Distinction Awards ! Crossword

LOOKAHEAD
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