Read the front pages of newspapers and the editorial pages and there is an enormousf outpouring about the death of one Iraqi; namely, Saddam Hussein. According to many, his execution was engineered as part of a conspiracy to prevent him from ever testifying at a future trial that would incriminate members of the American government in his crimes. For some his trial was nothing more than a "kangaroo court." For others, it was the death penalty that brought out the angst. One blogger said Hussein was "murdered." Even one right wing newspaper huffed and puffed about the "circus" surrounding his hanging -- he was apparently entitled to dignity in dying.
Murder is the taking of an innocent life without lawful cause.
When O.J Simpson was acquitted of the charge of murdering his wife and her friend, almost nobody believed that outcome. But the case against Simpson was always based on circumstantial evidence. Not so with the evidence incriminating Hussein. Do any of these people shouting injustice really believe that if trial circumstances were different Hussein had a better than even chance of walking away from it as an "innocent" man? There was no innocence about this guy, the evidence against him was virtually insurmountable.
Now look deeper into your newspapers for another article on deaths in Iraq. What's that? You can't find it? Let me help you out. The Iraqi government reported today that 13,896 "other Iraqis" were murdered in 2006. According to the United Nations, the figure for the year, just to the end of October, 2006, is actually 26,782. Hundreds of bodies show up in all parts of Baghdad, blindfolded, handcuffed, and mutilitated before death. These killings are the work of Iraqis of one Islamic branch battling the Iraqis of another branch of Islam.
If you are going to spend your emotional capital on murders in Iraq, this is what you should be outraged about. Nobody in the western world pays attention to these murders because Americans aren't directly responsible for them. These ordinary Iraqis truly are the innocents and don't deserve such a fate. Where was the dignity in their deaths?
Don't waste your time mourning the likes of Saddam Hussein.
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2 comments:
Dear Navigator,
You have missed the point. They could have killed Saddam at anytime - but that would not have been justice either. Justice would have been delivered by a fair trial, but that didn't happen. So regardless of whether you (and I) thought Saddam was guilty of crimes against humanity, he was not so proven in a fair trial. The outrage that is happening across the Arab world now is an outcome of just another mistake in Iraq by the US administration.
The US found Saddam, paid the reward for his capture, imprisoned him, set up the new Iraqi government and its laws respecting criminal justice, refused to send him to the more appropriate international criminal court and handed him over to the Iraqi administration for execution when even they must have known he was convicted by a kanagaroo court. The verdict was predetermined and the real issues about US complicity and guilt in Saddam's crimes had been left off the table in the trial.
So while not shedding a tear about the individual, we should all bemoan the inhumane, illegal and immoral way in which the treatment of this former President has been conducted. Justice has not been served and the outcome has been a disaster for the new Iraq, Maybe Saddam had the last laugh after all.
Not even going to comment on this political issue except to say you have certainly made your (good) point, and justice HAS been served, no matter who dished it out.
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