US embassy cable - 03KUWAIT1199

UNCLAS KUWAIT 001199 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI, PREL, IZ, KU 
SUBJECT: SADDAM'S SECRET WEAPON: THE MIGHTY MENGASH! 
 
1. Summary: The forced landing of a U.S. Apache attack 
helicopter behind Iraqi lines in the early days of the war, 
and the resulting implausible Iraqi claims that a heroic 
farmer named Mengash was responsible, have spawned a cottage 
industry of derision in Kuwait.  Today's date (April 01), and 
Kuwaitis' addiction to mobile-phone text messages, helped 
turn the stream of jokes into a torrent.  The mocking of this 
exaggerated Iraqi peasant hero is perhaps the most satisfying 
way the Kuwaitis have found to respond to their growing 
isolation in the Arab world, letting them vent their anger at 
the hostile Arab 'street' without losing their cool.  End 
Summary. 
 
2. Those familiar with Kuwait are used to hearing the 
incessant tones of incoming cellular phone calls and beeps of 
newly received text messages.  Along with those beeps these 
days, however, one is liable to hear the accompanying 
laughter of Kuwaitis who have just received the latest 
Mengash joke. 
 
3. Baghdad's rustic hero is sarcastically "credited" with 
everything from fending off anthrax to shooting down the 
space shuttle Columbia.  While we have yet to see Mengash 
T-shirts on the streets, the phrase "I (heart) Mengash" has 
already flashed across the screens of mobile phones 
throughout the country and been printed in newspapers.  Why 
did the latest missile attack on Kuwait fail?  It was 
Mengash, joke the Kuwaitis, who mistook an outbound missile 
for an inbound one and shot it out of the sky, such is his 
skill!  He is the equal of ten Republican Guard Divisions and 
an invincible leader!  He is so awesome, he even shot down an 
American submarine!  The Iraqis should clone him!  In fact, 
it's already being done!  Saddam started pumping money into a 
cloning program to save his battered regime as soon as 
Mengash performed his heroic feat.  Indeed, with his WWI era 
rifle and a steady aim, Mengash is the source of all Iraqi 
military victories, at least in the Kuwaiti telling. 
 
4. In Mengash, the Kuwaitis have found the perfect 
psychological antidote to the Iraqi regime's over-the-top 
propaganda.  While the rest of the Arab world swallows the 
noxious brew, Kuwaitis, who recognize it for what it is, no 
longer have to seethe, they can laugh it off. 
JONES