After going to bed last night with confusion over the actual date of his death, I awoke this morning to the news he had been executed. I wasn't going to journal about this after I had thought about it but a post on a friend's LJ (along the lines of "Rot in hell, Saddam" - you know who you are) I felt I had to comment.
Saddam's death is going to achieve nothing positive in Iraq. The country is in enough of a state without one group creating a martyr. I love the hypocritical stance Margaret Beckett took which I saw quoted on BBC News 24. While she applauded Saddam being brought 'to account for his crimes' in the same statement she said the British government didn't support the use of the death penalty in Iraq or elsewhere. *headdesk*
I suspect Saddam was tried and sentenced under Iraqi law or some form of 'neutral' international law. That is something I need to do more reading on. Another reason why I wanted to delay making a post about this. Yes, he committed terrible crimes against humanity. But what about America who bombed civilians in the first Gulf War? What about the killing happening in Iraq, committed by both armed 'peace keeping forces' and Iraqis themselves? What about the crimes committed by ordinary soldiers in Vietnam, Germany, China?
It is the victors who write the history of the
Please note, I am not against Americans altogether. It is the American administration and our British government that are encouraging this idea of realist international politics. I seem to have missed the announcement the United States of America was the peace keeping force of the world. Silly me, I thought it was still NATO and the UN. I guess I was wrong.
