Why "Saddamist", Not Baathist?

[KharmaTrain]

This regime likes to make up its own verbage and this one seems to be getting a lot of play lately. Maybe someone here can explain this to me. According to my history books, Saddam Hussein belong to the Baathist party...the same party that the Assads and the rulers of Syria belong to. I don't remember Saddam ever saying he left that party and started his own. So, where does the term "Saddamist" come from and what does it mean? I imagine this is to differentiate their bad asses from ours...when they're not ours, they're a Saddamist. Next...we try to figure out WTF "Islamofascism" is...

Cheers...

[Warpy]

1. Because they're hoping the stupid fundies

will notice it's close to "Sodomite," thus further dehumanizing Iraqis in the Baath party. You know, the socialists.

"Islamofascism" is just more projection on their part. Haven't you notice they hurl insults at people for the very things they demonstrate?

[CrownPrinceBandar]

11. I'm glad someone else made the.........

"Saddamist"/"Sodomite" connection. I was beginning to think my tin-foil hat was getting a bit too tight!

[Spinzonner]

2. Probably because

There were so many Baathists in Iraqi society, especially Sunnis. You had to be a party member to get anywhere. Doesn't necessarily mean that all, or many, approved of Saddams tactics.

Sort of like being a member of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union or a Republican in Corporate America.

Labelling them as the enemy and excluding them alienates a big part of the population, the very one that needs to be convinced to be a part of the national coalition.

Of course, only differentiating the situation and pople now shows how ignorant and willfully thoughtless they were about the nature of Iraqi society and politics before.

[KharmaTrain]

9. I See It Splitting Dog Hairs...

One of Bremmer's many blunders...and this guy should be brought to the Hague someday for his single-handed plunder of not only Iraq, but this country's treasury as well...but another thread another time...was to "dismantle" the Iraqi Army and make members of Saddam's government...the Baathists...from being in any control. Or so we're told. While some exiles like Chalabi and Alawi and other thugs moved in from the edges (just like Zarqawi has for Al Queda) inside it looked like a game of "Let's Make A Deal" was going on to slowly bring back some of the local bosses. Thus the former Baathists who "joined" the new governments are no longer anything...their political pasts have been cleansed...while the remainders are now called "Saddamists".

Yes, this is very much like the games played by the Repugnicans during the Cold War...creating the "Red menace" that could be translated to any enemy they chose. Then, when the Soviet wall came down many of the former Communist aparachniks who could be useful to the U.S. were no longer "Communists" but "nationalists".

Ain't doublespeak wonderful.

Cheers...

[manic expression]

3. We could play with this

How about "Hilterist", "Pol Potist", "Mussoliniist", "Pinochetist" or "Habyabrimanaist"?

Why not "Bushist"?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. bingo: sodomy rings true with the core supporters

[havocmom]

5. bush connects the term 'terrist' with Saddam but leaves wiggle room

"Saddamist terrists..." I heard the rat bastard say that. One more method to brainwash people into connecting Saddam to terrorists/9-11 without saying it outright so we can smack the shit outta him for lying about it all. Just more Newt inspired fascist speak.

edit: typo

[Rosco T.]

6. cause he's an idiot? n/m

[uppityperson]

7. Saddamist=sodomist=bad. Baathist=clean(bath)=good?

[chookie]

13. Excellent

Given how many fundamentalists use fictive etymologies, yours is a insightful offering.

[CatholicEdHead]

8. They are creating a new reality for us to study

[KharmaTrain]

10. Parallel Universe Works For Me

There's no reality that I'm aware of here. This is all fantasy with lies conjured up to embellish or distract from past lies.

It concerns me greatly that this country has been so bamboozled by such mindmelding...and something this nation will have to confront like a "truth and reconciliation" type cleansing some day.

Cheers...

[bullwinkle428]

12. Have you ever tried to pronounce "Baathist"? IT'S HARD WORK!!! (n/t)

[lectrobyte]

14. If I had 1984 in e-text form, I'd paste a bit where Winston reads

all about language from the alleged Goldstein writings... Obviously, anyone who opposes our freedom-spreaders must be a Saddamizer.

[KharmaTrain]

15. Orwell Would Be Impressed

I thought he would have been amazed at the doublespeak of the Pentagon circa 1969, but that's nothing compared to this regime. It re-invents the language daily to distort, lie and disceive.

No doubt the word "Saddamize" was Luntz-tested to get the highest negative reaction...ranks right up there with "rape rooms" (haven't heard that one lately).

[aaronnyc]

16. Because the Iraqis objected to our use of the term Baathists

Many people in Iraq joined the Baath Party while Saddam was president, because doing so gave them better job opportunities - not out of any particular loyalty to Saddam. So, some Iraqis in government realized that it was a bad PR move for us to keep referring to "the enemy" as Baathists (since they did not want to alienate the millions of people in Iraq who are not particularly political, but are still registered with the Baath Party) and thus, decided to change the term to "Saddamists."

[daleo]

17. The U.S. generally likes to personalize its propaganda

The other posters viewpoints are valid too, of course (e.g. linguistic tricks). But, I think it has long been a feature of U.S. propaganda to demonize individuals over groups. It is easier to get the five minutes of hate going that way, I guess.

Maybe it is an inversion of the odd obsession with celebrity culture in the U.S.?

[KharmaTrain]

18. The Simplification Is Insulting

I agree...somehow this regime likes to paint in very broad strokes. It's stealing their old "Cold War" playbook...take out "Communists" and put in "Islamofascists" and away you go. I would joke in the early 90's that the Repugnicans and their military contractors have a real problem with the end of the "Cold War"...who will they demonize now? I spoke way too soon.

This regime continues to try to create an enemy it can't define or that we can't see. Honestly...who speaks for the "insurgents"? We don't even know who they are other than we keep "killing" their top leaders. Didn't we kill Zarqawi at least three times this past month?

Even more specific...this regime is fighting a "war on terror"...they aren't fighting humans or a nation-state...they're attempting to fight a word...verbage...an undefined term that can easily be twisted to suit this regime's purpose...and you know they're looking for new ways to do so.

Cheers...

[daleo]

19. The oversimplification also shows a sort of contempt for the public

It is as if more difficult concepts couldn't really be understood by most people, so they are given a specific face to associate with this year's enemy. As you say, Zarqawi it the latest manifestation.

[KharmaTrain]

21. I Despised Being Lectured By An Idiot

When that asshat speaks and goes through another tedius "explanation" (lies) it surely insults my intelligence and I would imagine it would for anyone with a speck of a humane brain. Even worse is when this living shit attempts to "explain" things like he's lecturing some 3 year old. That surely sums up his "base". Anyone who dares to say this clod has any intellectual capacity beyond fratboy should be beaten with sticks.

[leftofthedial]

20. branding

marketing 101

[ECH1969]

22. Allawi and a number of government officials in Iraq are Baathist

but, they don't support Saddam or the insurgency.

[KharmaTrain]

23. So He's The Iraqi Equivelent Of Chuck Hagel???

Isn't Hagel also against this invasion? Yet he's just as much a Repugnican as the fukstick pretending to be president.

So should we divide the Repugnicans into Bushits and Repugnicans?

As others have posted here...this is all marketing 101...a way to create a demon that can be manipulated by this regime to seperate their crooks from the boooshes.