The Renovation of Tyranny

Let me start, very clearly, by saying that I do NOT believe that Saddam Hussein was any sort of a saint, or a hero. The man was a shit, plain and simple-- Mean spirited and megalomaniacal, in a way that 3rd world dictators are when they come to power without any system of checks and balances. . .I have no doubt in my mind that he was guilty of horrendous crimes against the Kurds, and against Shiite insurgents. he tortured and killed people, without mercy, and without due process.

That having been said. . .

Saddam Hussein was not executed for gassing the Kurds--that trial was never completed, and he was not found guilty for that crime.

Hussein was executed for the slaughter at Dujail, which he had his soldiers kill pretty much the whole village after an assassination attempt while he was visiting there. he was pretty ruthless and brutal, but then again, despots usually are.

The things that strike me as unjust are this:

1) Hussein was removed from power and subsequently arrested by an illegally occupying government. Considering the absence of WMD's (used as the justification for the invasion of Iraq), there was no legal justification for the US military to remove him from power and subsequently arrest him and hold him for trial.

2) The tribunal which tried Hussein could hardly be described as a just and impartial tribunal. It's by-laws prevented anyone but Hussein's political opponents from serving as a judge. This seems hardly just or fair.

3) The charges that he was executed for were based around a brutal retaliation against an attack upon him and his allies. Who are we, who have pretty much bombed the crap out of the country of Afghanistan, killing countless civilians, in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks guilty of anything less than Hussein's "crimes against Humanity" in Dujail? If the killing of innocents in retaliation for politically motivated terrorist attacks is the litmus test for hanging a leader, then we had better start looking closer to home.

4) One could say that he deserved to be executed for other things, such as the genocide against the Kurds--and that may well be, however, Hussein was not found guilty for those crimes. . .that verdict had not (and now never will) come in. If that HAD been grounds for execution, then his co-conspirators, the US government under the Reagan and Bush SR. administrations, who supported him before, during, and after the massacre of the Kurds in 1988 should be held accountable as well, as they acted in collusion by not only providing the technology for the WMD's used in those attacks, but assisted in covering those acts up, making public statements to lay blame at the feet of the Iranians, rather than the Hussein regime, who was our ally at that time.

To be honest with you, the whole thing makes me pretty sick. Not because I am against the Death penalty, which I am not, if it can be applied justly and impartially (which it usually fails to do), nor because I think that Hussein was "innocent". the fact is, I think he was a ruthless dictator who has the blood of countless innocents on his hands. . .

The whole thing makes me sick because our country, which is supposed to stand for truth, justice, fairness, etc has been a party to yet more criminal behavior. . .the execution of someone without a fair trial, without reasonable due process, is NOT something for us, as Americans, to be proud of. Justice has NOT been served by the death of this man. We have only dug our hole deeper. . .We have only befouled the precepts that we claim to promote.

it seems very clear to me that we have not removed Tyranny, but have renovated it into something with a better image. . .we have simply replaced it with a form of tyranny that is more acceptable to our western sensibilities--a tyranny that most of us are able to sleep with at night.

Most of us, not all of us. . .

and not me.