The Death of Saddam
Saddam Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad, who killed upwards of a million people over the course of his long and brutal career, who launched genocidal attacks against the Kurds, who used chemical weapons against innocent men, women and children, who destroyed the marshlands of Iraq in an attempt to wipe out the Marsh Arabs and their ancient way of life, who invaded and threatened his neighbors, who brought little but terror and hopelessness into the lives of millions upon millions of people living under his repressive regime, is at last dead.
After a long trial for just one of his many crimes — the murder of 148 Shi’a in the village of Dujail in 1982 after an attempt on his life, and the imprisonment and torture of some 1,500 more, including children — Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was appealed, the appeal rejected, and — in accordance with Iraqi law — the sentence was to have been carried out within 30 days. There was no reason to wait. At dawn (local time) on Saturday, 30 December 2006, Saddam Hussein was put to death.
Will his death stop all the violence in Iraq? Of course not, though it will increase the legitimacy of the Iraqi government in the eyes of most Iraqis. Yet it did send a powerful message to dictators and oppressors around the world, as well as those who live under such regimes: this is the fate of tyrants. This is where they belong: swinging from a rope, dancing on air. If the Iraqi people can hold free elections, create a constitution, and give their former despot a fair and open trial — all under the harshest of circumstances, with criminals, Sunni insurgents, Ba’ath party loyalists and terrorists attacking from all sides, backed by Iran and Syria – then there is hope for others.Â
Some say that it’s “unseemly” to celebrate the death of any human being, even one such as Saddam Hussein. Generally, that sort of sentiment comes from the same people who consider killing unborn babies to be on the same moral level as removing a wart. Personally, I feel worse watching someone take an antibiotic than I do about the execution of Saddam. All those poor little germs! Saddam voluntarily surrendered any claim on my sympathy years ago. All I have to do is pay a virtual visit to Iraq’s Mass Graves — especially the section on Halabja — anytime I want to be reminded what a foul, disgusting, filthy, perverted, sick animal he was. The death of such a “man” can only improve the world.
Many Liberals, of course, will snivel and whine about Saddam’s death, claiming that America is responsible for his behavior because the US helped him when he fought Iran. Would they rather have seen Iran control the entire Middle East? We should never deal with dictators, they sanctimoniously proclaim. Does that mean we should withdraw from the United Nations, the biggest collection of dictators, tyrants and international criminals one can find outside a James Bond film? They claim that because US companies sold Saddam dual-use materials like anthrax and chlorine, America is no better than he, and accountable for what he did with those things. Yet they forget that he requested those materials for legitimate purposes (research, water purification, etc.), the World Health Organisation backed him, and the WHO instructed the CDC to approve Saddam’s requests. At the time there was no law that could have allowed Congress to prevent the sale. One might notice how the Lefists never denounce France or Russia for selling Saddam nuclear reactors, weapons or military equipment, even while American soldiers were preparing to fight Iraqi forces.
Even if we did accept the Left’s claim that the US was responsible for “allowing” Saddam to become so powerful (ignoring the fact that he would simply have returned to his former embrace of the USSR had we snubbed him), how does that square with their complaints against America for rectifying the mistake by removing him from power? Anti-Americanism is a religion unto itself, and its prime article of faith is that America is always responsible for any bad events in the world.
But there is only one person ultimately responsible for all the terrible things that have befallen the Iraqi people in recent years, especially during the two dozen years of his own terrible regime. The only thing that matters is that the person who brought misery, death and devastation to Iraqis of all ages exists no more.
Joe Mariani is a computer consultant born and raised in New Jersey. He now lives in Pennsylvania, where the gun laws are less restrictive and taxes are lower. Joe always thought of himself as politically neutral until he saw how far left the left had really gone after 9/11. His essays and links to articles are available at http://www.guardianwatchblog.com/
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Stumble It!
January 1st, 2007 at 8:48 am
The execution of Saddam will continue to draw condemnation from people who oppose the death penalty. The vast majority of these will be of those who opposed the war in any case.
Critics of the trial will argue many points including amongst others that it was biased, selective with its witnesses, a ‘puppet’ court and that the Americans inviegled Iraqis to conduct the trial when America should have taken responsibility for it, etc etc.
However, Saddam was a mass murderer whose atrocities were well documented and attested by countless grieving relatives of his victims. The Court, for all its imperfections, carried out its enquiry in public, in full world light, using rules of evidence, which allowed cross examination by the defense (an issue denied to many in western Courts ), with a presumption of innocence and the weight of proof and corroboration put on the prosecution (again, not available in an increasing number of western Courts as any father or husband can attest)and with the scrutiny of its detractors.
In contrast, Saddam found all of his victims guilty without trial and summarily murdered them in the secret processes of a repressive regime.
All life is precious. This is a basic principle that unites the ordinary Iraqi with the ordinary everywhere. Saddam ignored that most basic human right – the right to live – again and again. Just to keep power.
Personally, I can empathise with the critics of the death penalty, generally, but recognise that some crimes are egregious. There are some whose crimes are much lesser than Saddam’s that I would see hang. Were I an Iraqi citizen who had lost a loved one to Saddam’s murder machine, I would be dancing in the streets along with all of the other Iraqis in Sydney, Melbourne, Shepperton – and the other homes of Iraqi refugees in Australia, as they did.
His living or dying on the gallows will make not a scrap of difference to the mayhem in Bagdad, overflowing as that city is with lunatic murderers of the same ilk as Saddam, but his dying will give some closure to his victims’ relatives.