SADDAM GETS GORBACHEVITIS?:

Iraqi protest over missing prisoners: Analysts say the protest was an unprecedented move (Caroline Hawley, , 22 October, 2002, BBC)

In Baghdad, dozens of relatives of prisoners not released after Saddam Hussein's amnesty on Sunday have held an unauthorised demonstration.

Political analysts have described the demonstration as an unprecedented display of dissent.

While it's entirely plausible that these are just staged demonstrations to convey the illusion that dissent is permitted in Iraq, it is also possible that saddam has made the same kind of miscalculation that Mikhail Gorbachev made when he initiated Glasnost: actually believing that the people are behind you. In the Soviet Union, Gorbachev decided to allow folks to criticize the Party, assuming they'd expose Stalin for the monster he was. But they went after Lenin to show that the Revolution had been corrupt from Day One and thus they destroyed the entire foundation of the State. Its rapid disintegration followed.
Posted by Orrin Judd at October 22, 2002 7:45 PM