Death of a Dictator

Saturday December 30th 2006, Saddam Hussein is hanged after being sentenced to death by an Iraqi tribunal and after his appeal was rejected. He was executed according to properly established laws governing the country he presided over during almost 24 years. The sentence was applied in response to his accusation of crimes against humanity (148 murder counts); furthermore, the prosecution proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Despite the form and order of the legal proceedings, the sentence reached is widely controversial, especially in the Middle-East. Supporters scream corruption and injustice, pacifists deplore the death penalty (in its most valid application in a long time), and Saddam curses his betrayers to the minute before his hanging.

In history, the elimination of despots has only been accepted unanimously (or almost) when it was conducted without ANY direct international

pressure or help. Mussolini (Italy, 1922-1943) was shot, tied to the back of a car and driven around town in 1944 by the Italian people...Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos (Philippines, 1965-1986) were exiled without trial by the people and militia of Manila for their slovenly exploitation of the state treasury...Ceausescu (Romania, 1965-1989) was summarily (3 days) tried and executed (bullet through the head in front of the courthouse) by the Romanian people who wanted to free themselves of the yoke of communist oppression.

The «Allied» intervention to free Iraq of Saddam's tyranny aimed ultimately to train a new (properly Iraqi) administrative bureaucracy, peacekeeping police and army forces and penal system (without the former corruption of the Sunni gouvernment). Unfortunately, this initial «foreign» intervention has irreversibly fueled allegations of western influences and interests in the Hussein case.

It may be cynical, but in my opinion, a military or political coup in Iraq, without the «Allied» intervention (2003), would have resulted in the hasty execution of Saddam and his administration, as well as an absence of controversy regarding foreign influences. An intervention to revamp the administrative infrastructure by the «Allies» could have proceeded with an emblem of «restoring the peace» rather than the current «international meddling in internal affairs» if it had come after the internal change of gouvernment. This supposition includes the precept that the Iraqi people would have eventually risen to enact the coup (which is their prerogative and no one else's as stipulated in the autodetermination clause of the United Nations Charter).

When Mussolini finally lost Sicily and Southern Italy in 1941-1943, he moved north to establish his headquarters amongst a less than favourable social environment. The draconian measures employed by the new fascist regime that had ruined the economy of Italy as well as the military failures of Mussolini in the Balkans (and widely in Ethiopia) caused a massive national sentiment of unrest and dissatisfaction. The breaking point was eventually reached for the populace and the symbolic mutilation and killing of their leader was not contested. The Italian people removed the dictator «for the greater good» of the Italian people.

The «Allies» have missed their chance and no amount of media «spin» will be able to eliminate the stench of tampering and interference in Saddam's removal and disposal.

(Pictured: A photogenic Benito Mussolini - Saddam Hussein without that unsightly beard and noose.)

End.