Like their American cousins in the Democratic Party, sentiment is building among the Iraqi people to return Saddam Hussein to power - according to Sunni Muslims quoted by the Associated Press who give the Butcher of Baghdad high marks for his bravura performance in court yesterday.
In a series of supposedly random interviews, the AP found one Saddam fan after another who longed for the good old days when the Iraqi dictator ruled their country with an iron fist.
Mohammed Omar, a 35-year-old unemployed father of two, told the wire service: "Maybe Saddam did oppress those who opposed him. But for every Iraqi, deep inside, he looks like the strongman we need."
He accused the new U.S.-backed government of being obsessed with prosecuting Saddam.
The AP found another Saddam fan when they interviewed Jinan Mushrif, a 49-year-old housewife who said she got chills of pride as she watched Saddam's courtroom antics.
"These are the real men of Iraq, not those who hide behind their bodyguards," she told the AP.
Mushrif's son, Ziyad Tariq, was suspicious of the witnesses against their former leader, suggesting that one torture victim who testified that Saddam sometimes fed his victims into a meat grinder was spouting Iranian propaganda.
"Did you see this guy, with his Iranian accent?" Tariq told the AP. "He is wearing a suit without a tie, just like the Persians."
The Sunnis aren't alone in their nostalgia for the brutal dictator. Last week a Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll found that in the U.S., 43 percent of Democrats now believe the world be better off if Saddam were still in power - with a mere 34 percent disagreeing.
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