Saddam gets religion and psy-ops

March 24, 2003

In the wake of an Iraq war that is seemingly not turning out to be the cakewalk that many expected, a calm and even relaxed looking Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi television 10 minutes ago exhorting Iraqis to keep up the cause.

Significantly Hussein referred to specific battlefields of the past 24 hours, launching world financial markets into a frenzy, as many suspected that Hussein might already be with his God, or at least severely incapacitated. In the last 15 minutes, Gold and Oil shot up, the US dollar slid a percent against most currencies, and the few Asian stock markets still open peered downwards in an already negative session.

Propaganda is a key weapon of war. Both the coalition and Iraq sides have engaged in psy-ops since the start. This speech was even more significant however in the step up of the religious rhetoric, with appeals to "jihad" and God being on Iraq's side.

The message of the speech was not so much for the Western world. The Iraqi people were not even the prime targets. It was a speech to rally the Islam world around his cause, delivered to build on the ever increasing passion of fundamentalist, conservative and even moderate Muslims against the war. In South East Asia, Indonesia is seeing demonstrations approaching the early days of the ant-Soeharto demos a few years back. But more importantly, it can be expected to stir up sympathy with the Arab world and his neighbours.

Paradoxically, Hussein leads a secular state. In his early days of his rise to power in Iraq, his religious profile and rhetoric was almost non-existant. It was only when he realised the power of religion to motivate a cause did he step it up.

Additionally while Christendom has moved to embrace the principle of separation of church (or religion) and state, Islam is seen by the great majority of adherants as being inseparable from government and the state.

Hussein's speech today only moved the stakes higher. And it may not be that this great paradox is realised by many in the Arab world.

The negative outcome of the war that most in Asia feared, from political leaders and heads of states to many Muslims and those of all faiths, is being pushed for all its worth by Saddam. The radicalization of the Islam world may well have been given a push by this war and Saddam's strategic psy-ops gesture today.