The Sena to the rescue. Surprisingly...

A news item couple of days ago had my interest. The Siv Sena through its mouthpiece,
Saamna, had come out in support of Saddam Hussein, and condemned the US-influenced
death sentence imposed on him by an Iraqi court.

Wow, that really made for interesting reading. A rabid anti-Muslim organisation coming up
in defence of a Muslim ??? I am sure this is a first for the Sena. I am no fan of communal / regional / casteist organisations and would like to have these formations removed from the
face of the Indian political scene. However, the viewpoint deserved looking into and some
of the points made in Saddam's defence did make sense.

Saddam was one of the few Muslim rulers to be on India's side in its tangle with Pakistan
over Kashmir. While other Muslim countries would blindly support Pakistan just because
they shared the same religion, Saddam chose to dwell on the merits of the case.

Saddam also was one of the few leaders that did not allow his country to be a base for
terrorists. Surprising, eh ? More so, because the US plank for invading Iraq was his
support for terrorists, apart from the non-existent WMDs.

And the item blamed Indian leaders for not coming up in support for Saddam. Forget
supporting another country/ruler, our leaders would not have the guts to stand up for
our own country, if it were under seige. And don't dismiss that as a crazy thought.
A bully is a bully, anything is fair game for him. Our nukes might be the perfect excuse
for the world's leading nuclear proliferator to invade us.

But then, the bully also knows whom to pick on. Observe the silence when it comes to
N.Korea, which is not without reason. The bully knows the extent to which the dictator
would go, if forced into a corner. And a nuclear flare-up is going to be costly for all parties concerned. Hope better sense prevails atleast there instead of the foolishness that led
them into Iraq.