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Saddam Now Stands for Sunni Victimization

January 03, 2007 3:35 PM

Saddam Hussein’s execution was meant to be the climactic event in the purging of all that was bad from Iraq that existed before the US invasion.  He was the symbol of tyranny, discrimination, oppression of Shiites and Kurds, the man who ordered poison gas be used on his own citizens, who dragged his country into war three times (one draw, two losses), who ran a police state that tortured detainees and then shot and buried them in mass graves in the desert.  Not a lot to like about this man.

Prime Minister Maliki wanted to see him executed to draw a line under the past, show the Sunni insurgents there was no way back and persuade Sunnis in general the only way forward was to become peaceful minor partners in the new Shiite-dominated Iraq.  The US, for its part, set up the trial process to show Iraqis and the world that justice could now operate in Iraq after decades of politically-controlled courts, judicial abuses and countless snap executions.

In a few short minutes last Saturday morning those lofty goals were all vaporized by a posse of masked guards who taunted Saddam with Shiite sectarian slogans as he was preparing to die – and by an as yet unnamed witness who filmed the whole execution on a cell phone.  The details we know already – now comes the government’s damage control, as it tries to spin the aftermath.  Today the prime minister’s office told us they had arrested the man who took the video – he was a guard, they said, although refused to give his name.  The witnesses to the execution had been flown to the execution site by US helicopters from the Green Zone, and they had all been searched before getting on board.  The guards, however, were already at the execution site and so they were not searched.  Or so we were told.  Hard to believe anyone could get access to the gallows chamber of a former president without having some sort of security check…  The chief prosecutor, Munkith al-Faroon, who witnessed the hanging, said he saw “two senior government officials” who were holding up cell phones to take images – they were not lowly guards, he said.

The prime minister’s office is also supposedly seeking the men who shouted the sectarian slogans – three and a half days ago… the results of that investigation have yet to be announced.  Witnesses tell us there were between 20 and 25 people in the room altogether.  Takes a long time to question two dozen people.

The damage is done.  Maliki’s plan to draw a line under the Sunni insurgency has, if anything, now made them stronger.  And the US idea to show how a dictatorial country can introduce the rule of law has been shredded.  Today, US Maj General William Caldwell, the chief military spokesman in Iraq, said in relation to the hanging: “If you are asking me ‘would we have done things differently?’ Yes, we would have.”

Ironically, only one person gains from all this – Saddam himself.  Universally feared while he was president – even by his closest aides – Saddam then suffered ignominy when he emerged like some ill-washed caveman from the hole in the ground three years ago, a pathetic shadow of a strongman they used to call the Butcher of Baghdad.  But with his calm and dignified approach to the gallows and his refusal to be lowered to the level of his tormentors, Saddam gained some rehabilitation, at least in the eyes of Sunnis, in Iraq and also around the Middle East.  Saddam now stands for Sunni victimization by a rising Shiite threat in the region.

Saddam’s execution was envisaged as the end of something terrible.  It now may be the beginning of something even more horrific

January 3, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

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Posted by: tj | Feb 12, 2007 1:05:43 PM

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