Saddam hanged, what next for Iraq?
Posted by Ellee on Dec 30, 2006 in Uncategorized | 14 comments 
After the car bombs and celebrations following today’s execution of Saddam Hussein, can Iraq expect a more peaceful future? His execution was the only appropriate fate for a despotic tyrant responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people. His death marks the end of the Saddam era.
I would like to think his death marks a milestone to democracy, but fear there will be much bloodshed and reprisals first. But what will happen next? Will it help Iraq to move forward?
Anyone reading Saddam’s last letter penned on 5th November and just released would believe he was a saint, is this the Saddam you recognise?
“To the great nation, to the people of our country, and humanity: Many of you have known the writer of this letter to be faithful, honest, caring for others, wise, of sound judgement, just, decisive, careful with the wealth of the people and the state… and that his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination.
“His heart aches for the poor and he does not rest until he helps in improving their condition and attends to their needs.
“His heart contains all his people and his nation, and he craves to be honest and faithful without differentiating between his people except on the basis of their efforts, efficiency, and patriotism.”
Will Saddam’s death make him a martyr? Will it strengthen the hand of Sunni insurgents in recruiting people to their cause? Will the celebrations in Shia areas only make these sectarian divisions worse?
I’m afraid the method of his hanging, the abuse, the videoing, the people with camera phones, the fact that Iraqi government ministers had just “turned up to watch like it was a party” (the words of one Iraqi official on Radio Four this evening), made this a quite ghastly thing.
I do not support the death penalty in any cicumstances, but this whole affair makes our so called “friends” in Iraqi government look no better than Al Quaeda terrorists beheading a victim on camera after humiliating him first.
I agree wholeheartedly with michelle, it would have been more of a punishment to make the man stew for the rest of his natural.
Instead his captors have proven that they are no better than Mr Hussein himself.
Just a passing thought, when Saddam was in power Iraq was ruled under an iron fist by a tyrant. the people of Iraq knew this and at least they felt safe to a certain degree. Now the country is split apart by warring factions so that Iraq is ruled by MANY smaller tyrants.
Just who’s version of the news should we believe? I don’t think Mr Bush is doing such a grand job. (or should I say “Mr Bush senior”)
The above commentor brings up a great point, surely televising his last moments just promote him into martyrdom even more? I think they should have left him to rot in a concrete room 2×4, with any forms of media banned from going near him.
I agree that his “trial ” was a shambles. And now the west has been a party to killing the man “in cold blood”. There is no need to have sunk to his level. As for the images I have seen tonight, it is sickening. They have been played over and over again on “Sky” and a little less so on BBC World, where at least John Simpson had a few pertinent questions to ask. If he was not drugged [as Simpson half suggested he might have been ] even his worst enemy would have to admit that he was brave at the end. I’m no apologist for him, by the way. He showed no mercy to his victims and his crimes were appalling. It seems to me that certain people may be simply waiting for a signal to use all this against the west again. I just hope I am wrong. And what about the whole business of showing those last moments, Ellee?
Denial and delusion accompanied him every step of the way.
There are good points in your article. I would like to supplement them with some information:
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
If you are interested in a view of the inside of the Pentagon procurement process from Vietnam to Iraq please check the posting at my blog entitled, “Odyssey of Armaments�
http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/odyssey-of-armaments.html
The Pentagon is a giant, incredibly complex establishment, budgeted in excess of $500B per year. The Rumsfelds, the Administrations and the Congressmen come and go but the real machinery of policy and procurement keeps grinding away, presenting the politicos who arrive with detail and alternatives slanted to perpetuate itself.
How can any newcomer, be he a President, a Congressman or even the new Sec. Def.Mr. Gates, understand such complexity, particularly if heretofore he has not had the clearance to get the full details?
Answer- he can’t. Therefore he accepts the alternatives provided by the career establishment that never goes away and he hopes he makes the right choices. Or he is influenced by a lobbyist or two representing companies in his district or special interest groups.
From a practical standpoint, policy and war decisions are made far below the levels of the talking heads who take the heat or the credit for the results.
This situation is unfortunate but it is absolute fact. Take it from one who has been to war and worked in the establishment.
This giant policy making and war machine will eventually come apart and have to be put back together to operate smaller, leaner and on less fuel. But that won’t happen until it hits a brick wall at high speed.
We will then have to run a Volkswagen instead of a Caddy and get along somehow. We better start practicing now and get off our high horse. Our golden aura in the world is beginning to dull from arrogance.
Tony, Saddam was obviously self-deluded, as are most tyrants, it’s an interesting insight into his psyche.
I read that extract and it reminded me what a self serving, arrogant, cynical manipulator the man was. I oppose the death penalty, but I certainly do not weep for his demise.
“his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination” – apart from Kurds and Marsh Arabs it would seem.
“His heart contains all his people and his nation” – including, presumably, the thousands raped, tortured and disappeared over the decades of his rule.
The sad thing is he probably convinced himself all this was true and that he had genuine and worthy reasons for his campaigns of terror.
I have to say I havent shed any tears on hearing about his death. I suspect the Americans would have perhaps preferred it if he had indeed been kept alive – but that wasnt the conclusion reached in court.
As a Radio 5 commentator mentioned this morning, immediately prior to his execution, Saddam looked like the dignified statesman, and the executioners the terrorists, in their balaclavas. I think this is likely to be a public relations disaster for the West.
I would normally abhor the death penalty but it is hard to see what is truly best in this case. As mentioned above, killing him makes him a martyr, but keeping him alive (however securely) would run the risk of continuing support by his followers. Tricky.
Isn’t this all just another Asia Minor trouble that popped up in history many times before?
Discuss.
Teri,My heart also goes out to the people of Iraq and our troops too. You can read more about civilian life there on Baghdad Burning’s blog, it’s harrowing stuff, his cousin was recently shot dead on the day he became engaged:
http://www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
What a sorry business. It’s all coming out now. People being killed in tree shredders and lamp post hangings by Saddam and his regime.
Like Buster says, it’s the farcical trial that demeans and questions his execution and giving further justifiable rise in the mind of some people to carry on with the unrest of Iraq.
He should have had his trial in The Hague. No question of legitimacy, no question of a pretend judicial system.
My heart goes out to the people of Iraq and our troops with the further escalated difficulties they will face.
Saddam’s death will make him a matyr. I don’t deny that he had to die, but his trial can only be seen as a joke. the political hot potatoes of who supplied him with most of his weapons,who supported him during many of his actions throughout the last twentyeight years (America and Britain)had to be glossed over to prevent embarasment to the liberators of Iraq.
I doubt there is an Iraqi that does not see this, despite the celebrations by many over his death.
He has according to some Iraqi blogs been portrayed as the leader of the Sunni population by the USA. I can not see how his deat can do anything else but add fuel to another already volatile situation, I feel sorry for those that will pay the price for his death. Both the civilian population and military personel will be bracing themselves for the backlash.