One more reason to oppose the death penalty
Sadly, just as I predicted to friends weeks ago, here’s the immediate outcome of Saddam Hussein’s execution, as reported by the AP:
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Execution sparks Arab support for Saddam
Status as martyr hero grows as new gruesome gallows video appears
Updated: 2:02 p.m. AKT Jan 8, 2007
CAIRO, Egypt – The execution of Saddam Hussein has sparked a wave of support for the former Iraqi leader around the Arab world, with some proclaiming him a martyr and comparing him to heroes of Arab nationalism — raising resentment against the United States and Iraq’s Shiite-led government.
A new video of Saddam’s corpse, with a gaping neck wound, was posted on the Internet early Tuesday, carrying the potential to fan the flames higher.
The video, which appeared to have been taken with a camera phone, pans up the shrouded body of the former leader from the feet. It apparently was taken shortly after Saddam was hanged and placed on a gurney.
As the panning shot reaches the head region, the white shroud is pulled back and reveals Saddam’s head and neck.
His head is unnaturally twisted at a 90 degree angle to his right. It shows a gaping bloody wound, circular in shape, about an inch below his jaw line.
There is blood on the shroud where it covered his head.
Praise overshadowing atrocities
Praise for Saddam has only grown since his Dec. 30 hanging, eclipsing what had been a greater acknowledgement in recent years of the atrocities committed by his regime.
On Monday, one Egyptian paper, the independent Al-Karama, splashed Saddam’s photo over a full page Monday, with an Iraqi flag behind him, declaring him an “Arab martyr.”
“He lived as hero, died as a man,” another Egyptian opposition newspaper, Al-Osboa, proclaimed in a headline, showing a photo of Saddam at the gallows.
The praise has angered Iraq’s government and Kuwait, which Saddam invaded in 1990. On Monday, Kuwaiti lawmakers slammed Arab countries that described the former Iraqi leader as a hero and demanded the government reconsider ties and financial aid to them.
Anger over the execution could fuel support for Iraq’s Sunni Muslim insurgency. It could also complicate the United States’ efforts to rally Arab nations’ help in reconciling between Iraq’s warring Sunni and Shiite communities and ease the country’s bloodshed.
The gallows scene
In large part, it was the unruly scene at the gallows that catapulted Saddam to hero’s status. In video footage smuggled out of the execution room, Saddam’s Shiite executioners are seen taunting and cursing him, while the former leader — his head unbowed — retorts, “Is this manly?”
For many, the scene came to symbolize dignified Arab resistance in the face of humiliation at the hands of a Shiite government seen by some in the region as illegitimate, backed by the U.S. military presence and closely allied to mainly Shiite Iran.
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Wouldn’t it have been better to leave him relatively well-treated, powerless, humiliated, and on display in captivity for the rest of his natural life? Wouldn’t that have made a greater statement about what we represent/ And in the long run, given what this execution will lead to, wouldn’t it have been far far less costly in every way?
And please don’t say “we” didn’t execute him. “We” were behind it every inch of the way.
January 9th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Yes, might have been better to leave him alive but powerless. At the same time, I wonder if someone might have taken hostages or threatened some extreme action to try to gain his release. Even if he wasn’t freed it could have resulted in tragedy.
Thoughts?
January 9th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Last I checked, Saddam had no supporters willing or able to attempt a rescue. What he does have now, though, is people willing to agitate in his memory because they believe the West is waging a war against their religion. We’ve lost the perceptual war — the one we’ve been losing every day since “Mission Accomplished” — and obviously that war was important. Had someone actually attempted a rescue of the captive Saddam, win or lose in that aspect of the conflict we would have won a perceptual victory: showing that there is an armed and dangerous enemy that stops at nothing.
January 9th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Killing Saddam accomplished nothing. His death does not make anyone safer, does not remove any threat to the U.S., and does not make anyone involved in the execution look good. He can now be claimed to be a martyr, even by those whom he would have killed, just to make their point of view look better.
I am surprised that Bush did not use his killing to inflate his we are winning hot air bag.
Paul