The controversy surrounding Hussein’s execution has been aggravated by a crude video of the hanging in the last hours of 2006. This probably goes without saying, but be warned that this is a poor-quality snuff film and shouldn’t be viewed by the faint of heart.
One theological commentator had this to say:
[Saddam Hussein] shouldn’t have been executed. Nobody should. Saddam’s execution just adds one more death to the pile; it doesn’t bring a single one of his victims back to life. He should have spent the remainder of his life in prison making Iraqi license plates and reading the Koran—he might have been surprised at some of the things he found there. God, who created Saddam for a life very different from the one he decided to lead, wasn’t finished with him yet, as God is not finished with any of us. We don’t have the right to foreclose on what God may be doing, and we are not wise enough to know what that might be.
I’d like to go beyond the issue of the death penalty—which I am strongly in favor—and would like to instead address the specific instances of executing a dictator such as Saddam.
Many of the points above are true. Hussein’s execution does just add another body to the pile of violence in Iraq. It does not bring back his victims to life. Many are still angry that Hussein wasn’t tried for his crimes against the Kurds. But the bigger issue in Iraq is one of peace and stability. As long as Hussein remained alive, he was a real symbol of the old regime that slaughtered millions of its own people and its neighbors. In death, some may make him a martry. Some Sunnis have taken to the streets in mainly peaceful demonstrations to protest the execution.
No one can be happy with the taunting he endured in the quasi-public execution. Iraq has a long way to go in terms of public civility. But for all the critics, Hussein’s death closes a chapter of Iraq’s history for good.
I think we’re all back in the swing of things with the New Year, and regular posting should resume about now.
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COMMENTS / 15 COMMENTS
Paul Jennings added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 10:28 am‘Back in the swing of things’? Oh dearie dearie me.
BesottedTom added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 11:25 amWilliam Christie has an article at D-N-I.net. He states he wasn’t against the execution, just the way it was done. I also think it could have been handled better. Here’s the link for anybody that may be curious.
Sonagi added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 11:34 amI am faint-hearted but couldn’t resist watching on another website. Because of the poor lighting, I didn’t think it was that gruesome. Yeah, his captors taunted him, but he mouthed right back at them. He did not look scared. He experienced a quicker and less painful death than the hundreds of thousands he had murdered.
Sinfjotli added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 2:33 pmSaddam’s execution was at least as necessary as anything else President Bush has acomplished since his questionable invasion of Irak. The despicable manner in which the former head of state was heckled and videotaped is reflective of all other malfeasances, corruption, and perplexing instability marked in the new nation. Maybe the U.S. military should have done the deed… because the Iraki government can’t seem to get its head out of its ass -and I know that it’s the radicals and dissidents who’re to blame.
As for Saddam, I don’t think he wanted any violence in his wake. He truly wished to reconcile with his maker and assume responsibility for his life’s imprint. If there is a God, then everything is his plan anyways… but only time will tell.
Dan tdaxp added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 2:47 pmWhat’s wrong with public executions? That the people can see the justice carried out in their name?
Joe added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 3:55 pm
But for all the critics, Hussein’s death closes a chapter of Iraq’s history for good.That chapter was closed when the coalition invaded in 2003. You think the execution really changes anything? If the goal here was to close a chapter, they should have heard all the grievances against Saddam instead of trying him on a select few. They should have waited until the country could be brought under the control of an effective government.
As it was done, this execution is useless for punishment and useless for deterrence. All it does is satisfy a primal sense of revenge in a few people, and give Bush one piece of news to slightly indicate that he didn’t completely screw up by invading Iraq.
Eddie added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 5:24 pmHe definitely deserved his moment at the gallow, but he’s certainly a martyr now, and the manner in which he was executed by Sadr’s thugs proved to most Sunnis that they are engaged in a fight for their survival against the Shia….
mark safranski added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 5:26 pm“As it was done, this execution is useless for punishment and useless for deterrence”
Oh, I’m pretty sure Saddam is deterred from further mayhem once and for all.
Having witnesses present who were once gruesomely tortured in that very jail by Saddam’s minions -including one guy who lost most of his family to Saddam’s killers – was a nice touch, morally speaking.
Hopefully, Kim Jong-Il’s execution will take place in a stadium.
Pius Aeneas added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 5:47 pmThe execution would definitely have been handled much more professionally by the U.S. military, had they been in charge. At this point, however, having Saddam hanged by Americans and not Iraqis might have been just as big a faux pas as having him hanged by angry Shiites.
I do think the effect this will have the Sunni insurgency is overestimated. The Sunnis are fighting for their survival, not for Saddam, even though most probably already suspect that the former may be as hopeless as the latter.
I don’t think the ‘martyr’ defense is particularly convincing in most cases, anyway. It really smacks of something James Bond would think up to stop a super-villain from killing him despite having ample reason and opportunity.
Dan tdaxp added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 6:06 pmPat Lang’s take:
6-How like AQ’s executions this was. How like.My take:
How intellectually vacuous PL’s rhetoric is. How vacuous.
Ben Shobert added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 6:40 pmHitchens is his usual brilliant self in the most recent Slate column he has posted.
Eddie added these pithy words on 04 Jan 07 at 7:49 pmAt a noticeable level, it was quite like AQ’s executions, considering the Sadr militias are guilty of mass murder in the form of ethnic cleansing of innocent civillians, whereas AQ is guilty of mass murder in the form of terrorism (and Saddam guilty of it in both forms as well as systematic rape and indiscriminate use of WMD against civilians). While various forms of evil are certainly not equal, it is the height of hypocrisy for the US to demean and betray itself aligning with one, especially the Mahdi militia.
Dan tdaxp added these pithy words on 05 Jan 07 at 1:03 amEddie,
Thanks for the reply. I responded over at tdaxp.
Kevin added these pithy words on 05 Jan 07 at 11:16 amI have been ambushed by the Mahdi army BTW..
;)
Mutantfrog added these pithy words on 06 Jan 07 at 4:00 am
January 6, 2007
Images of Hanging Make Hussein a Martyr to Many
By HASSAN M. FATTAHBEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 5 — In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.
On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Mr. Hussein has emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.
“No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed,”Â? President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remarked in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published Friday and distributed by the official Egyptian news agency. “They turned him into a martyr.”Â?
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“Having witnesses present who were once gruesomely tortured in that very jail by Saddam’s minions -including one guy who lost most of his family to Saddam’s killers ““ was a nice touch, morally speaking.”
