HANGIN' HUSSEIN
The execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein serves not justice, but the political purposes of the Bush administration and its Iraqi stooges. The most fundamental political motive of the Bush administration is its desire to kill a major opponent, openly, before the eyes of the world, simply to demonstrate its ability and will to do so. In the view of the White House, Saddam is an object lesson to any future opponent of American imperialism: defy the will of Washington, and his bloody fate could be yours.
Saddam Hussein, among the world's most brutal dictators, struggled briefly as American military guards handed him over to Iraqi executioners. But as his final moments approached, he grew calm. Dressed in a black coat and trousers, he clutched a Quran as he was led to the gallows, and in one final moment of defiance, refused to have a hood pulled over his head.
The execution of Saddam Hussein is another grim chapter in the catalogue of war crimes perpetrated against the Iraqi people. It is a gratuitous act of barbarism devoid of justice. Saddam’s death will only eliminate any opportunity for a political solution. Reconciliation will be impossible and Saddam will die as a martyr. Hanging Saddam only adds to our mutual disgrace and exposes the real face of American justice.
His execution does nothing to settle questions about Iraq’s future. The result is likely both to inflame the insurgency and to convince the Sunni middle class — if the past ten months have not done so — that it cannot trust a Shia-led government and had better build its future outside Iraq.
UPI analysis...
The timing could not be worse and the situation more precarious. The news of Saddam's hanging could stir emotions among the large numbers of worshipers gathered in the Saudi Arabian holy city. It wouldn't take much of a spark to ignite a riot among the millions of pilgrims gathered in Islam's holiest of cities. It's hard to imagine that the powers that be in Iraq, both Iraqis and Americans failed to take into account the Hajj and the Eid. If they did take the feast of Ahda into consideration and still chose to proceed with the execution, then they are either completely ignorant of local customs and norms, or if they did not consider the potent mixture of the Hajj, the Eid and the sentencing, then they are total fools. And fools can be dangerous. What follows next would be the beginning of a new and more violent chapter in Iraq's history.
The Vatican spokesman denounced Saddam Hussein's execution as "tragic" and expressed worry it might fuel revenge and new violence.
Senior Russian legislators Friday warned Saddam Hussein's execution could set off civil war in Iraq. "The execution will fuel civil war in Iraq and escalate Jihadism. ... The execution will result in a new interethnic and religious war in Iraq and could lead to the disintegration of the country into several states."
History will record that the Arabs and other Muslims and, indeed, many millions in the West, will ask another question this weekend, a question that will not be posed in other Western newspapers because it is not the narrative laid down for us by our presidents and prime ministers - what about the other guilty men?
Saddam Hussein's willingness to provide the Western media with documents and other evidence of the connivance of George H. W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Frank Carlucci, and other Reagan-Bush administration principals was made apparent to this editor in the months preceding the March 2003 American attack on Iraq. A senior Iraqi official contacted a British colleague of this editor and passed on a personal offer from Saddam Hussein to provide an "enterprising" Western journalist with the proof of America's sanctioning of Saddam's use of U.S.-supplied chem-bio weapons during the Iran-Iraq War, including Iraq's attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja. Also included in Saddam's "package" would be top secret information regarding his role as a longtime asset for the CIA, dating from his student days in Cairo. It is very clear why the Bush administration wants Saddam dead and it has nothing to do with Saddam's alleged "crimes against humanity."
Alternative view...
As the Western World celebrates the death of a tyrant, the truest joy is that of their tyrant masters who will soon, very soon, exact a terrible vengeance upon these most unsuspecting of people, and who have most curiously followed the sayings of their dragon masters that in order to be ‘free’ all their freedoms must be surrendered.
An influential cleric of Saudi Arabia's hardline Sunni school of Islam has denounced Shi'ite Muslims as "infidels" in a new religious edict that comes amid rising sectarian tension in the region.
Iran's supreme leader has told pilgrims on the annual hajj to Mecca that those who sow discord among Muslims are "mercenaries of the treacherous enemy." "Those with a grudge call some Muslim groups infidels ... To please the US and the Zionists they speak of the dangers of a 'Shiite crescent,' and they kill people to destabilize the popular Iraqi government."
The Israeli interests have become the main factor defining the U.S. agenda in the region, which makes the Jewish state the only partner capable of persuading or forcing the U.S. to abandon its decision of invading Iran. Only a change in the Zionists’ strategy can change the U.S. plans to attack Iran, so argued Scott Ritter, the former weapons inspector, in his new book, Target Iran: The Truth about White House’s Plan for Regime Change. “One of the big problems is — and here goes the grenade — Israel. The second you mention the word ‘Israel,’ the nation Israel, the concept Israel, many in the American press become very defensive. And the other thing we’re not allowed to do is discuss the notion that Israel and the notion of Israeli interests may in fact be dictating what America is doing, that what we’re doing in the Middle East may not be to the benefit of America’s national security, but to Israel’s national security.”
The Teheran Holocaust Conference caused quite a storm in the world media. One might ask: what’s so special about that? The difference is that all other gatherings were amen-sayers accepting the official version provided by Jewish organisations as the Holy Writ given to Moses on Mt Sinai. The official version of the Holocaust goes even farther than Writ: you may deny the Immaculate Conception and Resurrection of Christ, you may besmirch Muhammad, but if you have any doubt that 6 million of Jews were executed by Germans in gas chambers within the framework of a total annihilation project you may find yourself in a jail. If anything, the conference proved that the holocaust dogma is a basic tenet in the great world-embracing brainwashing machine of mass media.
When for the first time I heard that President Ahmadinejad said that the Holocaust was a myth, I was so surprised. I wondered if Iran U.S.
In a recent review of a work surveying mainly left-wing Jewish opponents to Zionism, I noted that haredi opposition to the Jewish state had been entirely overlooked. "Where is Natorei Karta in all this?" I asked. ... He is anxious to get over the message that not all Jews are Zionists, and that traditional "Judaic" philosophy (the author's term) is profoundly opposed to Zionism.
