WHY NOT GRANT THEIR BLOOD WISH?

At Funeral for Hussein Sons, a Call for 'Death to America' (DEXTER FILKINS, 8/03/03, NY Times)

The brothers Hussein were buried today here in their hometown 11 days after they were killed by American soldiers. The funeral touched off an outpouring of nostalgia for their fugitive father and was filled with angry calls to rid Iraq of its American occupiers.

Coming out of seclusion, more than 100 members of Saddam Hussein's family gathered in a parched cemetery here and laid the bodies of Uday and Qusay side by side, and then, to conclude an emotional ceremony, buried a third relative killed in the American raid, Qusay's 14-year-old son, Mustafa. A group of American soldiers kept watch at first, then slipped away.

The mourners, many of whom thrived under Saddam Hussein's brutal but patriarchal rule, asked God to judge Uday and Qusay as heroes killed in a glorious battle against a foreign invader, and draped each grave with an Iraqi flag.

"Oh God, welcome Uday and Qusay as martyrs on the day of judgment," a man intoned as the bodies of each were lowered into the ground. "Give them a soft place to rest in the earth, open the grave wider for them, and let each become your son."

The end of the ceremony, attended by as many as 200 people in all, set off a frenzy. Family and friends seemed to stop mourning the passing of the sons as they began chanting for the return of the father.

"Our blood, our souls, we'll sacrifice for Saddam!" the crowd roared, repeating the line.

When friends and family lined up in a traditional prayer to mark the end of the funeral, one of the members rose from his knees and exploded in anger, jabbing his finger at a small number of Americans standing by.

"Death to America!" he shouted, with murmurs of assent behind him. "Death to America!"

Don't you sometimes wish we were the kind of country that the Left says we are? A couple of well-placed truck bombs thatwe could easily blame on others would have sent just the right message to the Ba'ath remnants. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 3, 2003 6:02 PM