Austin Powers in Baghdad
American soldiers have discovered a safe house described as Saddam Hussein's "love shack." Saddam apparently shared the house with one of his mistresses.
The home's decor reveals Saddam as a would-be 1960's playboy:
"The doors of the town house opened to reveal a playboy's fantasy straight from the 1960s: mirrored bedroom, lamps shaped like women, air-brushed paintings of a topless blonde woman and a mustached hero battling a crocodile.
"[The] home [featured]: beanbag chairs, a garden of plastic plants, a sunken kitchen and a room for a servant, all 1960s-style. The sunken wet bar was stocked with 20-year old Italian red wines and expensive cognacs, brandies and Scotch whiskeys....
"Upstairs was a television room with bright blue, pink and yellow throw pillows. The bathroom included a whirlpool bath. The kingsize bed was fitted into an alcove with mirrors on two sides and a fantasy painting on the third.
"One of the air-brushed paintings depicted a topless blonde woman, with a green demon behind her, pointing a finger at a mythic hero. From the tip of her finger came a giant serpent, which had wrapped itself around the warrior.
"The home's 1960s look — parodied in the series of 'Austin Powers' spy spoofs — inspired a round of imitations from soldiers slogging door to door.
"'Yeah, baaabeee,' said Carter, doing his best imitation of actor Mike Meyers' character.
"'Shagadelic,'" another soldier shouted. Indeed, the carpet was navy blue shag."
Which confirms, I guess, what I've always suspected about what motivates people to become dictators.
