Iraqi Hangings

One thing that caught me by surprise whilst on holidays was the execution of Saddam Hussein.  I believe I was probably one of the last person to know he was hung because I was away on hols without news, internet or spoke to anyone and it was only on the happenchance I bought a newspaper at the kiosk to read by the pool that I found out about his death.

At the time I was surprised at how quickly it came as I presumed it would have been drawn out with appeals and counter appeals.

I also felt instantly a bit cheapened that this guy was executed for only one charge.  Not meaning to denigrate the lives of the 147 people or so that were the victims in this once charge, I am sure that it would have been better to have ALL or as much as possible explain the extent of his tyranny.  To be charged on one assault on a village in the 1980’s and then have the book closed kind of defeats the concept of making a statement or example of him to others.

Now his henchmen have gone to the gallows and one was inadvertently beheaded (or was he?) in the process.  Why I bring this up today is that now Tony Blair in the UK and other leading bureaucrats from the UN et al have condemned the executions for their barbarity.  I am sorry, but storming a country twice in 10-15yrs and slaughtering thousands of civilians in the process and killing a large number of your own troops on a search for non-existent WMD’s is in itself a war crime and a barbaric one at that.

To turn around and say that the deaths of Saddam and his cronies is barbaric and in-humane kind of misses the point and just shows how much of a mess we are in.  The West has turned barbaric but I guess we have the best spin doctors to make it sound like a “worthy cause”.

Sad.