Wacky
Iraqi Pinochle
by
Alan C. Baird
First publication:
Poor Mojo's Almanac(k), July 2003
Q:
How do you know your country's in big trouble?
A:
When the U.S. government creates a deck of cards with your leader on the Ace of Spades.
As
a culture, America has become extremely adept at distilling international conflict into
collectible items, widely touted via spam e-mail. For example, everybody realized our
latest war had the potential to be far more entertaining than Vietnam when one Central
Command briefing featured Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, holding up a sample of what
is now known as "The Iraqi Deck of Death" and explaining that each playing card depicted
a character on the Army's Most Wanted list.
This
event turned out to be the official opening day for Silly Season, especially
after subsequent reports appeared: the first five desperados captured actually
formed a straight flush.
Then
we heard about some of the other idiots surfacing in Paris, using the deck as
a pick-up line: "See? This is me - the nine of clubs!" Of course, status-conscious
French women refused to put out for any fugitive who was less than a face card.
In
hindsight, our military pulled off one of the greatest strategic moves in the
history of warfare by showcasing Iraqi men on the four Queens, instead of reserving
those female cards for wanted Iraqi women. Due to the inherent machismo of Arabic
traditions, this virtually assured the four guys in question would quickly decide
it was toaster-in-the-tub time. Evidently it doesn't matter how much back hair
you're sporting, when the whole world sees your mug shot on the Queen of Diamonds.
There
was one inexplicable omission from the card deck: Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the
dauntless Iraqi Information Minister also known as Baghdad Bob, author of the
following classic quotes:
"Yes,
the American troops have advanced further. This will only make it easier for
us to defeat them."
"They
are trapped in Umm Qasr. They are trapped near Basra. They are trapped
near Nasiriyah. They are trapped near Najaf. They are trapped everywhere."
"We
will welcome them with bullets and shoes."
However,
Baghdad Bob can take consolation in the fact that he's been immortalized as a
talking doll... which probably means he, too, will take the macho way
out.
***
Links:Decks: