I do regret, however, that more information was not obtained out of Saddam Hussein. About his life, his regime, his relationship with various countries. He would have been a fascinating source of information for regional historians. A real trial, at the International Criminal Court, the Hague or elsewhere, would have yielded real, valuable information.
The Telegraph has an interesting account of the hanging, although it’s not clear whether it’s first-hand or not. Angry Arab has an interesting, long, paragraph break free rumination on Saddam’s death, including some well placed criticism of al-Jazeera’s melancholy coverage (it was also poor coverage, they got the news late since they are not allowed to operate in Iraq officially). I really tire of seeing, as I did in the Nasserist Egyptian rag al-Arabi a few weeks ago, odes to Saddam Hussein “al-batal” (the hero.) It’s pathetic. I hear Abdel Bari Atwan did something similar a few days ago. What is it that Arab “nationalists” and some leftists have for other Arab countries’ dictators? Probably simply that over the years many of them took money from them.
I’m off to read Neil MacFarquhar’s long obit in the NYT…
I guess the Americans wanted the trial to be an “Iraqi” process for legitimacy, as if this bit of symbolism would help. It’s emblematic of the whole US adventure in Iraq, actually, they’d rather not have handed the trial over to cheese-eating multilateralists for fear that information that came out of an ICJ trial might hold the US to account or constrain it in any way.
Much is being made of the decision to hang him right before the start of the Sunni Eid al-Adha but two days before the Shia Eid begins. Coincidence or symbolic?
have you seen the TV footage from al-iraqiya of saddam being led to the gallows? it’s playing on most channels.
will you be happy when betrayers (puppets) are killed immediately or after a lengthy trial?
How about wishing that he had been sent to the Hague had a judicially correct trial, were all his crimes were looked at and his cosy links with certain countries and individuals exposed. Then he would have rotted away in a jail cell. Because saying I wish they had just shot him just exacerbates the orientalist stereotype of the Arab and eastern world and well it would be nice if we could show the world, guess what we are not the savages you think we are!
It would have been probably impossible to try him at the ICC because a) the ICC had and has no jurisdiction over Iraq, and b) it dosen’t have jurisdiction over events that occurred prior to July 1, 2002. They still could have created a legitimate international tribunal, similar to those for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, rather than the kangaroo court they slapped together.
The entire trial including the hanging was a farcical and illegal event. The parading of his decapitated body was a direct violation of the Geneva conventions. Corruption, murder, banditry and death squads are the hallmarks of the new Iraqi government. The trial was rigged so that he would only face the charges bought against him for the dujali killings. The Iran/Iraq war that was a much bigger crime leading to the deaths of over one million people was completely ignored likewise the halajba killings.
Kowalski – I agree 100% but a fair, international-standard trial exposing Saddam’s crimes as well as his relatiions with the West is the last thing Bush would have allowed
Show the complete execution of Saddam. I want to see the great dictator twitch. He had the opportunity to do great and achieve what no man has ever achieved. But, he decided to murder, torture, rape, and all that impressive action. Bye Bye Piglet, swing low . lol
I would have liked to see him at teh Hague, but I reallize their jurisdiction over Iraq was limited. I also think the timing was articifical.On the US news last night, Nightline, to be precise, the Eid connection (Sunni) was mentioned. The otherthnag I found interesting about Nightline’s presentation was the sense of negative space (or maybe that was only in my head)- the idea that Saddam swung for a relatively small crime- the presentation invited comparisions with Fallujah, the sense that Saddam’s death squads summarily executed people brings to mind maurading marines. At least he took some responsibility for what he had done. I’m still waiting for Bush and co to go before the Hague, but that won’t happen, either. We had a royal snit fit and pulled out: a pretext, I suspect, to prevent charges being prepared against a sitting US president.
I would disagree if Saddam is painted as brutal and a tyrant as is seen in this forum. Why has no one given a thought to the Baluchs in Pakistan and what is happening to them, thanks to Musharraf, a new tyrant that every one has to look at. Just because Saddam was bold enough to call a sapade a spade, he does not become any worse than Musharraf of Pakistan who calls for FOUR witnesses from a victim of RAPE in his country. This is a father of a man who is settled in USA and it is really a shame that he still lives in the stone age.
While I do not wish to condone all that Saddam did but I express my surprise at the myopic view people take in lokking at likes of Saddam and ignoring the likes of Musharrafs.
Right, because killing tens of thousands of people according to their sect/ethnicity in addition to being a brutal dictator = calling a spade a spade, while a semi-brutal dictator who inherited the hudood nonsense from the previous dictator (and by the way has recently repealed the rape witness requirements in Parliament) is the biggest evil the world ever faced. Don’t get me wrong, I detest Musharraf, but to say he’s worse than Saddam is laughable.
No one is suggesting that Musharref and plenty of others, I might add, let’s not forget our fun little friends in the Stans, are petty criminals- but to look at Saddam on their level is to either evince a profound misunderstanding of the intensity of his regime or to so belittle the result of his activities that hudood/habouz practices (and in some cases,complete nonsense in the way they are applied) are considered to be on par.
There is a time and a place to address the Musharrefs- but this is not it. Now is the time to ponder Saddam, those who made him, those who abbetted him, and those who staged the last act for their own ends.
Well, at least we have evidence from the comments above that idiotic navel gazing whinging on is not exclusively an American blog commentariat phenomena.
Moucharraf is a bastard, but nowhere in Sadaam’s league and not every bloody time Dictator X is mentioned does your own hobby horse have to be mentioned. Ahmed seems just bloody delusional – decapitated body mate? Bloody loon.
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I dont favour capital punishment
What does the bible teach us in the ten commandments. We are not allowed to kill someone. We could have leave Saddam in jail for the rest of his life.
saddam hussein is a great leader…he’s a power hand in iraq and a hero of child
Saddam got what deserved.
paki
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As part of its global campaign against impunity in Congo, the MJPC has set up an online petition which can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/24459.html“ target=”_blank”>http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/24459.html asking concerned citizens around the world to demand the UN in Congo Mission known as MONUC and the Congolese Government to act decisively to enforce the ICC outstanding arrest warrants against Ntaganda.