The Nation: 'Gruesome.' 'Barbaric.' 'Politicized.' 'Farcical.'

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 12/31/2006 @ 01:41am
'Gruesome.' 'Barbaric.' 'Politicized.' 'Farcical.'
John Nichols

While much of U.S. media coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution has strained to echo the Bush administration's suggestion that "justice" was done, the international reaction to the hurried hanging of the former dictator has recognized what one of the world's top experts on the Middle East refers to as the "gruesome, occasionally farcical" nature of the process that led to the execution.

"It's tawdry," Rosemary Hollis, the director of research at Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London, said of the execution. "It's not going to achieve anything because of the way the trial was conducted and the way the occupation was conducted. Life in Iraq has become so precarious that many people are saying it was safer under Saddam Hussein - it makes the whole thing look like a poke in the eye as opposed to closure or some kind of contribution to the future of Iraq. The purpose should have been to see justice done in a transparent manner... the trial was gruesome, occasionally farcical, and failed to fulfil its promise of giving satisfaction."

Chris Doyle, the London-based director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, was equally dismissive, telling the Guardian newspaper that, "For Bush, Blair and their diminishing brotherhood of diehard supporters, Saddam's demise is their sole concrete victory in Iraq in almost four years. This should have been the crowning glory of their efforts, but instead it may pose yet another risk to their demoralised troops. For Iraqis, some will see it as a symbol of the death of the ancien regime. For some Sunnis, Saddam's death represents the final nail in the coffin of their fall from power. But Iraqis may also see this as the humiliation of Iraq as a whole, that their president, however odious, was toppled by outside powers, and is executed effectively at others' instigation."

Doyle's assessment was shared by Iraqi expatriate Kamil Mahdi, an academic who is now associated with the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Britain's Exeter University. "It will be taken as an American decision," Mahdi said of the decision to execute Hussein and the way in which deposed leader was killed. "The worst thing is that it's an issue which, in an ideal situation, should have unified Iraq but the Americans have succeeded in dividing the Iraqis."

Critics of the trial and execution of the former dictator did not defend his actions. Rather, they recognized the fundamental flaws in his trial by an inexperienced and clearly biased Iraqi judiciary. And they condemned the rush to hang Hussein by a country employing the widely-rejected sanction of capital punishment.

"A capital punishment is always tragic news, a reason for sadness, even if it deals with a person who was guilty of grave crimes," explained Father Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Vatican, who added that, "The killing of the guilty party is not the way to reconstruct justice and reconcile society. On the contrary, there is a risk that it will feed a spirit of vendetta and sow new violence." ......(more)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?

[Straight Shooter]

1. bush can yammer on and on that it was the Iraqis' decision to execute Saddam.

The world isn't fooled.

[Jcrowley]

2. K&R n/t

[Gregorian]

3. But no stem cells were harmed in the process.

See! They're the conservative party with true compassion and morals. Only kill when they deserve it, or when you need what they have.


The whole world's laughing. Or is that sneering. Oh, nevermind. Americans are oblivious. Half of them, approximately.

[badgerpup]

8. Gee...now if only Saddam had been able ...

...to attain a persistant vegetative state, he'd be alive today!
Culture of Life, doncha know...:sarcasm:

[crickets]

4. Excellent article. K&R

Of course the subject came up at dinner last night, and I couldn't seem to coherently (at least in my SIL's opinion) express why I thought the execution was wrong. Nichols and those he quotes do an excellent job of making a clear case.

:dem:

[KAT119]

5. Thank you, Katrina and Nation writers for always shining the LIGHT in darkness.

[ptolle]

11. Second only

I agree, Katrina & co. second only to the Mother Jones crew, IMO.

[Say_What]

6. Add: Macabre, Ghoulish, Perverse, Obscene. I keep thinking

that the backlash from this is gonna be major.

[struggle4progress]

7. Yep. Just what Iraq needs: another death. How inspiring.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

9. this sentence summed up my scattered thoughts on this wonderfully

"Iraqis may also see this as the humiliation of Iraq as a whole, that their president, however odious, was toppled by outside powers, and is executed effectively at others' instigation."

[Briar]

10. The latest administration spin

can be found in the ever-obliging NYT which has a story suggesting that the Shia controlled government carried out the execution in this way against Washington's wishes. Let's just ignore the fact that the whole thing was stage-managed by the administration from the start and that, if they hadn't wanted Saddam executed in that way at that time, they could simply have refused to hand him over, let alone helpfully flying in twelve "witnesses" as well.

[confludemocrat]

12. seen by world as what happens when the U.S. turns on a former "partner"

who they supported in some repressive or murderous undertaking or who is simply too openly hostile to Israel
Nobody calls this "justice" outside of U.S., Brit and Iraqi factional spokespeople and their enablers in the media of the respective entities.

[Normvan]

13. True that.

Sad but true,makes me feal bad.

[angry_chuck]

14. george bush - words speak louder than actions

Iraqi expatriate Kamil Mahdi, an academic who is now associated with the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Britain's Exeter University. "It will be taken as an American decision," Mahdi said of the decision to execute Hussein and the way in which deposed leader was killed. "The worst thing is that it's an issue which, in an ideal situation, should have unified Iraq but the Americans have succeeded in dividing the Iraqis."

Bush succeeded in dividing America as well...but he's a uniter, not a divider.

george bush - words speak louder than actions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKtEqVVlVZs

[Ganja Ninja]

15. What a glorious moment in our nations history.

And to think it only cost us half a trillion dollars and 3000 lives plus annual payments of 100 billion plus that will go on for the foreseeable future. What a bargain! Worth every penny.
:sarcasm: :eyes:

[LuckyX]

16. Now here is the truth

"American counsel to Mahmud Othman, a Kurdish politician, who, in Tuesday’s Al Hayat accused the U.S. of not only encouraging, but rather engineering a swift conclusion to Saddam's life story.

Othman argued that the U.S. pushed to hasten the Iraqi leader's execution in an effort to avoid more details of past American collaboration with the dictator being revealed in subsequent investigations.

Othman, a powerful Kurdish member of the Iraqi National Assembly, told the pan-Arab daily that "hastening the execution of Saddam before ... investigating the source of the chemical weapons he used to suppress the Kurdish and Shiite uprising was an American plot ... the fear that their role would be revealed."

[angry_chuck]

17. the question

would it have been better to let them have known the truth?

or to kill him and silence that truth for ever, leaving the Kurds, as well as the rest of us, to only speculate about... what really was?

Maybe now only bushco knows the truth. The truth was most likely very bad for the georges.

I can imagine that the things which will be speculated upon in lieu of the truth may prove to be more damaging than they originally anticipated.

The best would be for some secret Saddam manifesto to come forward with all the details. Then it would all blow back on them!