The Prophetic Baghdad Bob

In the puffed up optimism produced by shock and awe, the figure of “Baghdad Bob” (Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi Information Minister) was the center of much mirth. His predictions of U.S. defeat, even as American tanks rolled in the background, repeatedly made the rounds on the internet, especially on pro-war blogs. But four years later as Bush’s Iraq policy is in tatters, “Baghdad Bob’s" pronouncements no longer seem so delusional.

Here are a few examples:

“Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!"

"I can say, and I am responsible for what I am saying, that they have started to commit suicide under the walls of Baghdad. We will encourage them to commit more suicides quickly."

"I can assure you that those villains will recognize, will discover in appropriate time in the future how stupid they are and how they are pretending things which have never taken place."

"We have them surrounded in their tanks"

"Now even the American command is under siege. We are hitting it from the north, east, south and west. We chase them here and they chase us there. But at the end we are the people who are laying siege to them. And it is not them who are besieging us."

Any apparent American gains, he said, were a cunning ploy by the Iraqis to lure the enemy into a trap."Our armed forces, according to their tactics, are leaving the way open"