"Zsa Zsa Saddam" to taunt Iraqi regime loyalists

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17563306.htm

TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein has his head tossed back, his blonde locks flowing and a filter-tipped cigarette dangling coquettishly between his delicate fingers.

Meet "Zsa Zsa Saddam", the U.S. army's latest ploy in the four-month hunt for the fugitive dictator.

In a campaign set to start on Monday, U.S. forces plan to put up posters around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit showing his face superimposed on Hollywood heroines and other stars in an attempt to enrage his followers and draw them out.

As well as Saddam dolled up as a slinky Zsa Zsa Gabor, there is a busty Rita Hayworth Saddam, a grooving Elvis Saddam and even Saddam in the guise of British-born rocker Billy Idol.

"We're going to do something devious with these," said a chuckling Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell last week, as he checked out a range of spoof Saddam pictures taken from the Internet (www.worth1000.com).

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[durutti]

1. Look

This is idiotic. The guerrillas aren't all just Saddam loyalists. They're just people resisting a foreign occupation.

[tlb]

2. "The guerrillas aren't all just Saddam loyalists"

but the ones that are ?

Psyops often look silly to the people they are not directed towards. I don't know enough Iraqi culture and psychology to judge this a good idea or not, but I don't dismiss it out of hand for the same reasons.

[Capt_Nemo]

4. It is not a question of Iraqi culture or psychology

It is about taking your enemy for fools or retards. Underestimate them at
your own peril...

On edit: do you think you will bait these guys into targetting a
f***ing poster??? They have a busy schedulle, you know, a lot
of GIs to kill and a lot of pipelines to blow up.
Get real...

[susu369]

22. "He who laughs last..."

And it may not be Lt. Col. Russell....

"We're going to do something devious with these," said a chuckling Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell.

BTW, he just gave away his "devious plan" - is he so full of hubris that his shows his cards?

Time for a cup of coffee. Whew.

[Cocoa]

27. they must know what they're doing, right?

personally, I'm dismissing it out of hand. This is as stupid as it sounds.

I think it's also partially, if not totally, psyops aimed at us, make it look like we have a plan, make it look like we're making progress. Just like the stupid playing cards.

[Capt_Nemo]

30. BINGO!!!!

[Capt_Nemo]

3. Just who the hell does come up with this harebrained scheemes

Is Dick Dastardly in the Pentagon payroll now?

[truthisfreedom]

6. no, it's a mindset that comes from listening to bush's snide frat-boy

remarks about everything. america is the new world a**hole who pisses into the wind, never thinking about consequences.

[IndianaGreen]

36. Homophobic Freepers in the military

Only Queen-wannabees would come up with this stupid idea. Did it occur to them that showing a scantily dress woman is offensive to Muslim values?

One of the posters shows Saddam's head on Elvis's dancing body, a gold crucifix hanging around his hairy chest.

Hey, whatever brings the defeat of Bush's imperial army is good, and if Bush's geniuses in the military are the ones that bring about their own defeat, that is even better!

[Devils Advocate NZ]

5. Watch the US casualty rate soar...

Taunting the opposition is a very clever ploy (hell even Bush tried it). Then when they come out to kill US soldiers, they can be fixed, and eliminated. Of course you can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, so some US soldiers will have to make the ultimate sacrifice for the oilfields... uhh... I mean Iraqi freedom.

Lets just hope that there are fewer Saddam loyalists than there are US soldiers, because at the rate things are going, there will be tens of thousands of dead US soldiers before this is over.

I wonder where their memorial will be?

[NYC]

39. Non verbal version of "bring them on".

I would imagine it would increase attacks.

How is this childishness supposed to win a war?

[Jacobin]

7. "Getting Saddam" is nothing more than a political trophy hunt

It will not stop or change the resistance movement to oust the U.S. occupiers.

This little stunt will simply insult and piss off more Iraqis

[U2Shark]

8. Nyah, Nyah, Nyah!

"As well as Saddam dolled up as a slinky Zsa Zsa Gabor, there is a busty Rita Hayworth Saddam, a grooving Elvis Saddam and even Saddam in the guise of British-born rocker Billy Idol."


Wait a minute! Elvis and Billy Idol are COOL, how is this going to piss people off?

I can see the new army commercials now, instead of driving tanks, they show guys photoshopping...

[Merlin]

9. The lunatics are now fully in charge of the asylum.

It took a while for the Bush/Neocon mentality to begin to dominate the Pentagon.

The military had spent many years attempting to purge itself of the Dr. Strangelove characters that dominated it during the early cold war and the Vietnam era. Now they're back.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Looks like we've reached the farce part.

[Warren Stuart]

13. No I think it;s Wily Coyote

And his Acme Saddam Taunting Kit. This is going to win over a lot of hearts and minds. No electricity, water, safety, medicines and we are going to solve these problems by putting up posters.

Of course these will become the most popular items in Freeperville, it's only a matter time before Drudge will be hawking them on his site.

[Capt_Nemo]

15. ROTFL, Warren

"Acme Saddam Taunting Kit" - Brilliant!

[Astarho]

25. They can't even get Wile E Coyote right

I mean c'mon, they don't dress Saddam as a woman, they disguise the giant stick of dynamite as a woman and then Saddam comes, out falls in love and BLAMO!

(I knew watching all those roadrunner cartoons would come in useful someday)

[ewagner]

40. LOL

:P

[Aidoneus]

10. when I think the rank silliness of this murderous campaign has hit bottom

somebody is always there to throw down a shovel.. is this what our billions a month are paying for? A blond wig on Saddam posters? ELVIS FUCKING SADDAM?

:argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh:

[SoCalDem]

12. and posting "provocative" pictures of women's bodies

with or without saddam's face, will go over really well in a religious Islamic community :eyes:

[leftchick]

19. my thoughts also SoCal...

these neocons are so clueless about the Islamic culture and they keep proving it over and over again. I bet the soldiers have got to be getting pretty sick of this insane stratergery too. :crazy:

[Aidoneus]

21. I think the utter stupidity of it is more..

I mean, "oooh, a woman's body!" vs. "oh, this is so fucking stupid..", the latter is more of the issue here than assumed sensibility..

...Ok, the Saddam/Elvis with the crucifix is particularly obnoxious, considering that idea that this is some variation on a crusade.

[chillwindblowing]

11. ANOTHER HAIR BRAIN SCHEME

OMG WHERE WILL THIS END. :puke:

[psychopomp]

14. Something even stranger from the article

-snip-
The gambit is part of a game of cat-and-mouse Russell and his unit are playing with Saddam loyalists in the Tikrit area.

Apparently intimidated by the U.S. Army's heavy presence around town, more and more guerrillas are stashing their weapons and keeping a low profile, U.S. commanders say.

U.S. forces are trying to flush them out and hunt them while they can.

RPG ALLEY

One tactic Russell and his team uses is to make themselves the bait. On most nights, Humvees packed with soldiers will drive up and down what has been dubbed "RPG Alley" to try to attract fire from locals armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

While that has had some success in recent weeks, now Russell is turning to the poster campaign to see if he can taunt Saddam loyalists into showing their faces.

--WTF? The last few weeks have not looked at all successful from where I sit, unless making widows out of soldiers' wives is the new benchmark for "success."

[Mari333]

16. I saw that on TV yesterday

My husband and I shook our heads as the news anchor giggled..
These people have NO CLUE as to the danger this will cause the troops, already considered the enemy..
as a mother of one kid who might be sent over unless we can keep him out, and another stepson who might go, Im beyond words with anger at the mindless assholes who would put US troops in harms way like this.

BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

[tabasco]

Good thing Rummy purged the Army leadership.

There won't be any more dissenting opinions from those pesky generals anymore. Just make them retire.

[Enraged_Ape]

17. "Your mother was a hamster! Your father smelt of elderberries!"

"Now go away, or I will be forced to taunt you a second time!!"

[radwriter0555]

18. MY tax dollars are being spent on THIS crap???

Oh goody.

[pw]

23. I wonder who owns the copyright on those pictures?

Or perhaps those laws don't apply in a liberation zone...

[wtmusic]

20. Bring them on part 2

Good, let's enrage his followers and sacrifice more GIs.

These guys just...don't get it.

[TennesseeWalker]

24. I think they're doing this just to get JON STEWART to notice them.

Sounds like a good Daily Show report to me.

[Emboldened Chimp]

26. Do the Iraqis even know who Zsa Zsa is?

Or Rita Hayworth? Bill Idol? We all know them, of course, but that doesn't mean everybody in the world knows who they are (were).

[htuttle]

28. What's next? Exploding cigars?

Foot powder to make his moustache fall out?

It must be the same crowd in the Pentagon now as worked at the CIA in the 60's (they tried all those things on Castro in the 60's...didn't work...).

And oh my gosh, look at what they've been reduced to:

"It's mostly good for troop morale, but if we can put these posters up in Tikrit and the enemy can't take them down, then at least it shows who owns the streets," said Sergeant David Cade, a psychological operations specialist.

So our 'powerful military' has been reduced to the equivalent of 'tagging' grocery store walls and alleys, just like some gang of delinquent teens.

And from the article, here's what's likely to come of this:

Yet while the posters may help divide locals into the amused and the infuriated, they also run a serious risk of stoking fury among ordinary Iraqis who may not be pro-Saddam but still will not accept the idea of the Americans poking fun.

(snip)

Given fears in the Arab world that the invasion of Iraq was akin to a Christian crusade, some Iraqis say U.S. forces would do well to think twice about leaving the cross hanging around Saddam Elvis's neck.

Finally, their poster 'ideas' don't seem very imaginative. Mo Paul, this is your hour! Your country needs your skills! :)

[TeeYiYi]

29. Maybe they could rip down some flags and replace them with posters. n/t

TYY

[mbperrin]

31. Or they could just go around pissing on

the perimeters of "the streets" to show who owns them!

Dogs been doing it for a long time!

[samsingh]

32. more of shrub's 'bring em on' mentality

isn't this type of behavior beneath us?

[Rose Siding]

33. This kid has the nerve to work with the US

He's an Iraqi, he's lived there, knows the country but what can he know, right?

snip>

"Maybe it is funny for the soldiers, but I think most locals will find it very insulting," said Uday, a 22-year-old working as a translator at the U.S. army base in Tikrit.

[indictrichardperle]

35. just losing more hearts and minds

the average Iraqi, those ambivalent or hostile to Saddam, will see this as disrespectful, insulting, debauched.....and it will give them a very low opinion of Americans.........Mission Accomplished......idiots.

[bvar22]

34. I don't get it.

This do anything for anyone?

[lumpy]

37. How in hell can we win Bushwars

with military assholes like Lt.Col. Russell eading the way ? This is as ridiculous as TV's Jackass, proving to all the world what jackasses Americans are capable of being.

[neuvocat]

38. Saddam was installed by the U.S., so that in turn

goes against the U.S.

Funny though how months ago we kept hearing about all those Iraqis yearning for freedom from Hussein. Guess it wasn't true, huh?