The Hangng of Saddam Hussain

So they've finally hanged Saddam. Saddam the great big evil dictator, who killed so many Iraqis. Saddam the terrible, who invaded Kuwait, supposedly had nuclear weapons and who promised to fight the mother of alll wars. Eventually, the shambling relic became, in his words, the sacrifice for Islam, and died at the end of a long rope at a secret location.

I'm not really sure the man didn't deserve it. He was a brutal man who headed a brutal repressive government, killed millions of fellow humans with poison gas, and tortured and executed political opponents. A man who lived by the sword, and who it was expected would die by one.

No, the question is simply this - did the Americans, or the puppet government who rules in their name, have the moral legitimacy to execute the man?

I can understand the need to hang Saddam - a deep desire to close a chapter, a feeling that as long as he was alive he would serve as a rallying point for insurgents, a fear that when the American armies left, the Baathists left could come back and return him to power. It's an age old tradition to execute the enemy after displaying him in a triumph - from Vercingetorix to Najibullah, via the Nazi top brass and the Romanovs. In fact it was good leadership, according to Macchiavelli.

Accept it, Admit it.

The neoconservative ruling class in the USA would not admit to such motives. Accepting such a motive would anger the voting public, sheltered from the harsh realities of real war.

OK, one can understand the need of the US to finish off the enemy commander before they finally cut their losses and run. One can understand the motive in handing over Saddam to the Iraqi government for the execution.

But what galls me is when Bush tries to be holier than thou when talking about the execution. After all, the US happily supported Iraq through the worst excesses of Saddam's regime and only turned against him when the Kuwaiti oil-wells were threatened. The US hasn't fought a moral holy war. It was realpolitik, plain and simple - and economics as well. The welfare of Iraqis was the last thing on the minds of US policymakers.

When the US will face the inevitable backlash of anger, its citizens will wring their hands in horror and wonder what they did to deserve that.