TIME: Making A Martyr Out Of Saddam

[Mark E. Smith]

If the deposed Iraqi leader is executed now, the country's Sunnis will always think of Saddam's
rule as a golden era -

By Robert Baer (former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East.)

Posted Friday, Dec. 29, 2006

Now is not the time to execute Saddam Hussein. With Iraq still under coalition occupation, as far
as Iraqi's are concerned the rope around Saddam's neck will be American. The Shi'a and the Kurds
may not care whose rope it is - they just want the man dead and their pound of revenge. But for
the Sunni, Saddam will become an instant martyr.

You'd be hard pressed to find a Sunni - or for that matter anyone else - who thinks Saddam's trial
was fair or impartial. The Coalition Provisional Authority, the institution dedicated to dismantling
Saddam's regime, established Saddam's tribunal. Its first head was the nephew of Ahmad Chalabi,
the Iraqi exile who dedicated his life to destroying Saddam. The tribunal's presiding judge is a
Kurd from Halabjah, the Kurdish city Saddam gassed in 1988. How could the man vote other than
to execute Saddam and still expect to go home to Kurdistan?

It doesn't matter to the Sunni that Saddam is guilty of the crime he's charged with: the massacre
of 140 Shi'a villagers in 1982 in reprisal for an attempt on Saddam's life. At the risk of oversimpli-
fication, the Sunnis think the Shi'a villagers deserved it. It was that kind of rough justice that
Saddam used to keep Iraq together.

All they care about is this: as the current war grinds on, as Iraq's death toll starts to approach
Saddam's deadly legacy, as the Sunnis lose more and more of their power, as memories fade,
Iraq's Sunni will think of Saddam's rule as a golden era. They'll remember Saddam as the leader
who kept Iraq together, kept them on top and prosperous, kept the Shi'a and the Kurds in their
place, and kept the Iranians from invading during the Iran-Iraq war. They may never look at
Saddam as Saladin, the Muslim general who liberated Jerusalem in 1187. But when the rough edges
do wear off, Sunnis will look at Saddam as a martyr.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1573220,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. The headline writer is making martyrs OF his own English teachers,

since he apparently ignored everything they tried to teach him!



Another English teacher dying for lack of respect!

[LynnTheDem]

2. "as Iraq's death toll starts to approach Saddam's deadly legacy..." Ummmm...

Saddam Hussein; 200,000 according to human rights groups (and the bushCabal) over 30 years.

George bUsh; 655,000 - 900,000 over 4 years.

"starts to approach"??!

[jeff30997]

3. The bastard was not judged at the Hague.

Period.