Shirin Sadeghi: Farewell Friday: Tahrir Square Has Spoken
[Shirin Sadeghi is an Iranian-American writer and Middle East expert. She formerly worked as a journalist for the BBC World Service and Al Jazeera English. She is also a columnist for Pakistan Today, Pakistan's national daily newspaper.]
Yet another Anglo-American-backed dictator is set to fall from grace. The Shah of Iran, Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein -- they all refused to concede defeat. And they all fell down.
Hosni Mubarak will, too, if he doesn't review his history books. There are, after all, only two-types of Anglo-American dictators: those who accept the endgame and live free to tell the tale, and those who don't....
Though his own father was ousted by the Anglo-Americans, the Shah of Iran didn't seem to understand how serious his predicament was when in early January 1978 several thousand marched against him in the streets of Iran. He still didn't seem to understand when in mid-January 1979, he finally fled. It was only once he was bounced from country to country that he realized how much had been at stake. His story ended in Cairo, where his remains still lay, resting alone in an alien land.
Not long after the Shah was Noriega. The military dictator of Panama never dreamed (though it was in the recent past of history) that the Anglo-Americans would turn on him. They told him to leave -- his time was up. He didn't hear them. They waged war and now the only thing most people know about him is his infamous mugshot. He will die in prison, if he has lived at all these last three decades.
And then there was Saddam Hussein. They pulled him out of a hole he was hiding in. The crow-black dye on his hair was faded to a shadow of its former glamor. His famous mustache was indistinguishable from his barbed nest of beard. They hung him in a basement and released the "stolen" cellphone video to prove it. He once waged war on his neighbor for them and this was how they repaid him....
Read entire article at Huffington Post
Yet another Anglo-American-backed dictator is set to fall from grace. The Shah of Iran, Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein -- they all refused to concede defeat. And they all fell down.
Hosni Mubarak will, too, if he doesn't review his history books. There are, after all, only two-types of Anglo-American dictators: those who accept the endgame and live free to tell the tale, and those who don't....
Though his own father was ousted by the Anglo-Americans, the Shah of Iran didn't seem to understand how serious his predicament was when in early January 1978 several thousand marched against him in the streets of Iran. He still didn't seem to understand when in mid-January 1979, he finally fled. It was only once he was bounced from country to country that he realized how much had been at stake. His story ended in Cairo, where his remains still lay, resting alone in an alien land.
Not long after the Shah was Noriega. The military dictator of Panama never dreamed (though it was in the recent past of history) that the Anglo-Americans would turn on him. They told him to leave -- his time was up. He didn't hear them. They waged war and now the only thing most people know about him is his infamous mugshot. He will die in prison, if he has lived at all these last three decades.
And then there was Saddam Hussein. They pulled him out of a hole he was hiding in. The crow-black dye on his hair was faded to a shadow of its former glamor. His famous mustache was indistinguishable from his barbed nest of beard. They hung him in a basement and released the "stolen" cellphone video to prove it. He once waged war on his neighbor for them and this was how they repaid him....