What Hanging Saddam Will Accomplish

Editor on 12/29/06

Today's New York Times editorial discusses thoughts on the Iraqi governing body's decision to execute Saddam within a short, finite period of time. However, following their path of negativity throughout this entire campaign, the editorial focused on what the decision would not accomplish. The New York Times track record of negatively spinning every action taken regarding Iraq has been unfair as well as counter productive to the entire war campaign.

Let me explain what Saddam's execution will accomplish. First and foremost, Saddam will not continue to manipulate the governing bodies around him. Saddam has proven to be a master survivor his entire life. The world this saw first hand after the first Gulf War. Despite the outcries of so many including the writers for the NY Times, the first Bush administration did not topple Saddam in Bagdad knowing well the dangers of getting bogged down into a civil war. They accomplished their mission, removed Saddam from Kuwait and did so in stunning fashion with the world community behind them.

It is unfortunate that we live in a society with a short attention span and a limited knowledge of history. Saddam was able to regroup, again and again, counting on, capitalizing and manipulating our short sighted western mindset that quickly loses interest and will. The 1990's television coverage dictated our foreign policy and persuaded the American people that it was our obligation to take the lead in basically another European war despite the active participation of the E.U. Saddam utilized our distractions and our bleeding hearts to survive and prosper, always picking key moments to erupt, knowing time was not on our side. As his trump card, he used oil to manipulate greed of many of our so called allies. The end result was the the US ended up footing the bill for two war campaigns, the fighting in Bosnia and the containment in Iraq, while others milked the system behind our backs and snickered along the way.

Saddam managed to play out this card through out the remainder of the first Bush administration (holding a national parade, televised, when he lost) and during the Clinton years when inspections basically fell to pieces and international corruption was at it's zenith. Saddam proved himself a master at playing Western minds against each other, realizing he paralyzed us . He knew we we distracted easily, he knew we walked on egg shells during election season and he knew essentially we were a people who still could not grasp the magnitude of his barbaric behavior. He survived far longer than he should have at the cost of hundreds of thousands dead and incalculable terrible PR to the US worldwide image. Simply maintaining bases for containment in Saudi Arabia was a major factor in Al-Qaida's attacks on 9-11. They hate us for our beliefs but despised us and attacked us for keeping troops in their holy land.

If and when Saddam hangs a statement will finally be made in a language that many in the mideast clearly understand. He will be dead. He will never be coming back and it never would have happened without the action of an exceptionally brave American president and our exceptional American armed forces.

NY Times
Editorial: The Rush to Hang Saddam Hussein

Here's another from the Guardian Unlimited. They support a position that the justice system in Iraq is unjust and that Saddam's rights are bring violated. While I appreciate their position in a theoretical sense, how about spending a little time in the real world. Weigh in the fact that the man is one of histories mass murderers, add in that his mastery at manipulating a bleeding heart , left leaning west that lives in a world of the abstract and I get to a point. Let's move on with it. Let's make a statement, enough, and let's put our considerably energies into how to handle Iran, the "Heart of Darkness" issue of our age. When even an angry Thomas Friedman who hates the Bush administration with a passion and blames them in entirety for the entire Iraq odyssey, excluding his subconscious deep disappointment for his beloved Arab societies, says the mullahs are nuts, we have a problem on our hands.


Iraq's shallow justice

Saddam's trial has been a missed opportunity for the government to respect human rights

Richard Dicker
Friday December 29, 2006
The Guardian

The imminent execution of Saddam Hussein and two other former Iraqi officials marks a further step away from respect for human rights and the rule of law in a deeply polarised and violent Iraq. For 15 years Human Rights Watch and other organisations documented rights violations committed by the former government. There is no question that Saddam and his cohort were responsible for horrific practices. But by ratifying the execution order the tribunal's appeals chamber has compounded the serious errors committed at trial and further undermined the credibility of the process.

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