Monday, January 1, 2007

Saddam

In a nutshell: Good riddance.

With respect to timing, however, it was a complete mess. By executing Saddam so close to Eid al Adha, they played into his own desire for martyrdom status, and exacerbated the Shi'a-Sunni tensions already so raw in civil-war-torn Iraq.

For what it's worth, note that Saddam was hanged, so any attempt to link his execution to the act of zabihat is nonsense. This was an execution of a criminal, and anyone who tries to argue that the date of same is somehow an insult to Islam is giving Saddam a completely unwarranted religious validation. Had Saddam been beheaded, the analogy might have some grounding, but as it was, Saddam was hardly the first devil to die and won't be the last. That's the only lesson to take: Saddam was executed by his nation for crimes against his own people. That's another reason to celebrate on Eid al Adha.

2 comments:

  1. I confess to still being thoroughly confused as the Iraqi government insisted that he was NOT executed on that holiday.

    At some point my head just starts to spin.

    I'll give you this much: I wish they'd just gone ahead and waited a week. Although I don't think most of the critics would have said much different, some of them would have.

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  2. I wish they had waited long enough to try him for ALL of his crimes. Maybe it's too hard to hold a trial and get witnesses in the middle of a civil war. But at least no one will be fighting to restore Saddam.

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