Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri on TV 9 years after Iraq's invasion

Iraqis on Sunday (April 8) called a video posted to  a social media website that purportedly shows a former Saddam aide as futile.               

The video, which is described to show Saddam's former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, shows a man resembling the former aide, wearing a military uniform and glasses, lashing out at Iraq's ruling government and Arab regimes.               

The video was uploaded of a social media website on Saturday (April 7).               

Reading from a paper, Douri criticised Arab countries for what he described as their support to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.               

On the streets Baghdad, Iraqis gave their reaction to Reuters TV.               

"I would have preferred -- if I was in his shoes, and thank God I am not -- to confess to the crimes of the Ba'ath Party from the beginning until now in a sincere and honest way in order to lessen the burden on his shoulder," said one man, Qais Ghazi.               

"Confession is the highest degree of a man's courage, but regrettably those people are still adamant until this moment on wrongdoing and they insist on mistakes.           

Regrettably a group of Iraqis are still living under their wings and repeating the same things, which Izzat al-Douri and people like him are doing," Ghazi added.               

Others said the video brought back hateful memories of the Ba'ath Party's reign.               

"Every now and then we have such a media fabrication and a speech by this character, who was totally rejected by the Iraqi people during his time in power. Therefore, it is really strange that Iraqis might interact with him now.           

People who control such elements harm the Iraqi people and humanity at large. An aide of a well-known fascist leader is shown wearing a military uniform with military ranks and guards in olive military uniforms standing behind him -- it is an ugly picture totally rejected by Iraqis," said Aziz Oun, a lecturer at Baghdad's Fine Arts Institute.