Saturday, December 30, 2006

Saddam's execution

It is great that Saddam Hussein has been executed. He deserved more than that, he murdered approximately 200,000 Iraqis, mostly Kurds and Shia, and if you include the war he started on Iran, then he probably killed as many as 500,000. But, although the media are calling it a historic event, it is now merely a blip in the current insurrection in Iraq.
It has two aspects, first it shows again that dictators can be brought to justice, humbled and then killed for their crimes against humanity. Second, as a purely internal Arab case, it shows that dictatorial Arab regimes are not impervious to being overthrown, albeit with outside Western help.
There are four groups who have different responses to his execution:
1. The West, which regards it largely as a recompense for evil deeds.
2. The Shia, Kurds, Iranians and others who will celebrate his removal from the scene as a powerful enemy destroyed.
3. The majority of Sunni Arabs who will be sad that a powerful champion of Arab nationalism has been removed, largely by Western interference.
4. The extremist Sunni Arabs, such as Hamas and many Iraqi Sunnis, who regard his execution as a crime and will seek revenge for it.
One irony is that while the Iranians support Hamas, they end up at opposite ends in their reaction to Saddam's execution. The Iranians are in the happy category, and Hamas are in the vengeful category. How they overcome this and ignore their opposite reactions is difficult to see, but can be understood only in relation to their common enmity towards Israel. Note that in his final remarks, Saddam, seeking to influence a wider audience, said that Palestine is an Arab area, but also that the Arabs should beware of the Persians. So in that case he lumped Israel and Iran together as common enemies of the Sunni Arabs. Whether or not this statement, or his last testament, will have any long-term influence is questionable. Without his interference the Sunni Arabs are already becoming aware of the threat that the resurgent Shia crescent from Iran to Lebanon means to them.
Next year, Osama's execution!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home