Black Magic Saddam

From the Associated Press:

According to the magician and several others interviewed in Baghdad, Saddam was a firm believer in magic, and even applied himself, with modest success, to "studying the sands" and summoning genies.

He consulted frequently with two magicians from Iraq, one from Turkey, one from India, a French Arab and a beautiful Jewish witch from Morocco, the wizard says.

Saddam is still protected, he says, by a pair of magic-infused golden statues. The deposed president speaks daily with the king and queen of genies, the same ones who provided the information on his whereabouts.

Comments

[Jean Bart]

http://www.gradis.net/xray.htm

[Mo]

Look what a devout Muslim Saddam is. No wonder him and Islamic fundamentalists are such great pals.

[Warren]

Thank goodness our leaders aren't advised by fortunetellers and astrologers... Oh wait.

[Eric]

Didn't the "realist" foreign policy camp hold among its main arguments against going to war a belief that Saddam was a rational actor, and could be trusted not to do anything destructive enough bring about the quick demise of his regime? I wasn't gung-ho about the war myself, but it's hard to defend that particular line of reasoning in the face of stories such as this one.

[joe]

Having strange beliefs does not mean one is incapable of showing discernment and behaving rationally in one's self interest, Eric. Think of Stalin. Then again, are Saddam's mystical inclinations any less rational than several highly effective Roman imperators?

[arjay]

So, Saddam speaks to genies, and Dubya talks to God: maybe we'll find out which one is real.

[Kevin Carson]

"That is the one wish I cannot grant."

"Well, then, how about a little head?"

[I Dream of]

Why oh why doesn't the genie just tell Maj. Nelson where Saddam is?!

[Ken Hagler]

Sounds like Saddam and Bush have something else in common, then:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/943879.asp#BODY

[Anonymous]

Is he any worse than Chimpy who waves his "magic bible" like all stupid Xian fundies?

[Jough]

What do the smart Xian fundies wave?

[Henry]

Why can't we get Barbara Eden in action?

[Jean Bart]

Eric,

Does that mean that Ronald Reagan was irrational, and wholly untrustwhorthy, because he thought that nuclear war would be the apocalypse foretold by Revelations? Don't underestimate the ability of an individual to compartmentalize the rational with what many view as the irrational.