Hang Saddam, Bush
The world press is flooded with articles on the expected hanging of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity. There is no doubt that he deserves some form of punishment for the death of 148 Iraqis and other crimes he committed as president before the country was invaded by the order of US President George Bush in 2003.
But if the Saddam verdict was right, former Malaysian premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad had correctly said that Bush should also be tried for a bigger crime -- death of 650,000 Iraqis and the brutal torture of thousands of innocent men, women and children. But Bush is still the President of the most powerful nation.
Will such injustice turn an evil man like Saddam into a martyr? Saddam definitely thinks so.
Extract of Saddam's rather poignant farewell on Aljazeera.
I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking.
I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us.
I sacrifice myself. If God wills it, he will place me among the true men and martyrs.
1 comment:
Well written.
But here is the difference: Saddam was a totalitarian regime whereas Bush worked within democratic structure. He had to get congress approval before using the force. However, the victims of Saddam’s brutal regime probably never had a fair trial before being hanged or shot in the head. To that extent, I feel better.
But you bring up a good point – half a million deaths due to an “intelligence error” can not be justified under any circumstances. So, how can we prosecute such a leader and his neo-con inner circle, who misled the whole nation and still have the audacity to call others non-patriotic? No easy answers here. Again, the best you can expect is probably an impeachment, which looks highly unlikely due to political calculations by both sides of political spectrum!
What a mess, eh?
Post a Comment