Here is the full text of Saddam's recent televised speech. If after you read it you still think this guy is not a psychotic megalomaniac, then I don't know what to tell ya! http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentS...y&c=StoryFT&cid=1028185615697&p=1012571727102 btw, why do we refer to him by his first name? and would we continue to do so if it was some Western name like Fred or Dave?
Babak...he couldn't be Fred ....didn't you see the link I posted? Check out the word for Peace in the Scandanavian countries. I believe (I could be wrong) that Bush Sr. started calling him by his first name. It could have been to distinguish him from Hussein of Jordan, or maybe it was some kind of slight...sort of like if he was called "George" by his enemy. Who knows?...it did stick though. http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/9356/wordsof.htm Kiba-kiba to you Babak (Rapanui..my second language..took it in High School in the Bronx knowing it would come in handy some day; most of my friends from Easter Island speak it regularly. So it has worked out pretty well for me, just like I figured it would) RS7
Using the first name is simply a way of showing that we think a guy is beneath us... hence Saddam, Osama, Slobodan, George etc...
LOL @ rs7. Why do the papers print such nice pictures of him? Doesn't he look like everyone's friend? I'll try to find one.... here's one...<a href="http://staff.science.uva.nl/~grunberg/photos/may-2001/baghdad.html"><img src="http://staff.science.uva.nl/~grunberg/photos/may-2001/pics/school-room.jpg"</img></a>
I remember reading that Bush used the first name (correctly pronounced Suh-dom) to annoy him because when purposely mispronounced (as Sad-am) it meant devil or something like that.
To offend/irritate him. Bush-sr did it extensively during the golf war. It's a sign of no respect, I guess
Do you mean like "Sodom" as in "Sodom and Gomorrah" and "sodomize"? That would make sense -- being given the name of your arch-enemy's most notoriously sinful place would definitely be quite an insult... interesting.