Glum

[poliphilo]

I stayed up till midnight- just. Ailz and I stood at the bedroom window and watched fireworks bristle along the skyline.

I got a call from Bolton in the wee, small hours. Happy, shining people wishing me a happy new Year. The lads had gone back to Sara's house and were partying with her parents. 

I'm not a party person.

I keep coming back to Saddam. There's a jolly picture in the press this morning showing him with his neck broke. His executioners (more like a Shia lynch mob actually) jeered him and loosed the trap door while he was still saying his prayers. All through the process he showed courage and dignity. The new Iraq makes the old Iraq (Saddam's Iraq) look good.

I'm so ashamed of what America and Britain have done.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

We supported him for years while he provided a geostrategic counter to Iran. During that time he used chemical weapons on his own civilians, he repressed the Shite majority through tactics as diverse as rape and torture, and he engaged in a war with Iran than led to the death of an estimated 1 million+ people.

Given the culture that has existed in the region for centuries (a tribalist "blood for blood" mentality that will not be easily erased by "progressive" Westerners any time soon) and given Hussein's treatment of them during his reign it doesn't surprise me one bit the moment the Americans handed Hussein over to his countrymen they jeered him at his execution. Frankly, I have a hard time casting judgment on the behavior.

Capital punishment is barbaric, don't get me wrong. The West's dealings with the people of that region has often been deplorable, I understand. But I think to cluck our tongues at the behavior of the executioners betrays a sort of reverse colonialist mentality toward Iraqis with little understanding of the culture and history behind it. And while Hussein might have gone to his death with defiance and insults rather than blubbering, to characterize him as dignified, or the old Iraq with its systematic oppression and murder as somehow better than the free for all bloodshed of the new Iraq just seems out of place.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Saddam behaved the way tribal warlords have always behaved. I don't suppose his behaviour was any worse than that of Richard the Lion Heart (who is popularly remembered as a good king).

I watched the footage of the execution. I saw dignity in the way he carried himself.

Yes, he was a bastard. It's pretty much a precondition for being a political leader.

Is the new Iraq worse than the old Iraq? It's certainly no better. We went to war with the promise that we would create a democracy. We have let those people down dreadfully.