Saddam To Hang Within Thirty Days

Below you will find an article posted today in India Daily http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/14894.asp. The Iraqi appeals court has upheld the order for the execution of Saddam. As this news goes out around the world, there will be many who opine on the issue. So in that vein, I throw in my own opinion in on the matter.
From the days of the early saber rattling by my country against Iraq, I was against the invasion. This is NOT to say I think Saddam is a nice guy and it is NOT to say I did not have a "jump for joy"
when he was captured in a hole in the ground. It is rather to say that as a person who knows more than a little bit about Mideast culture, I KNEW the war as we were prepared to wage it would be a disaster. Any American who believed the follies of the neocons when they promised the red carpet would be rolled out for us simply did not know what they were talking about. The promised "terrorist tea party" has been unleashed because the OCCUPATION has unleashed it. Recently my professor Dr. Hilmi Ibrahim, professor of MiddleEast /Islamic studies at Whittier College confirmed my long held thesis when he told an audience at our Watada event the same thing, "Anyone who knows anything at all about Iraq would have known NEVER to contemplate the idea of invasion in the first place"
Now within the next thirty days Saddam is to be executed. More American justice to be unleashed via the Iraqi courts. It is NOT because I think Saddam should be given a posh cell complete with HBO that I feel he should not be executed, and it is also not only because I am PERSONALLY against the death penalty (no room for arguement here, you are entitled to your contrary belief if you hold it) I am simply at the bottom line concerned with turning Saddam into a martyr for whoever might take him up as one, and believe me, there will be those who feel he has been martyred if he is executed. There is already civil war, (thank you Matt Lauer for being the first to mouth the dreaded words our neocon evil empire government denies) with more than 50 just today (and those were the ones that were actually counted) dead in the streets. If anyone thinks that executing Saddam is such a grand idea, be forwarned, this WILL unleash more civil strife and if you are a reasonable person this should NOT be what you want. Lock him up, throw away the key, try him on all the other counts, do whatever you want to prevent him from doing more harm, but executing him in my own humble opinion is just simply not the way to go This is just my own personal take on the matter and since I have absolutely no power over the situation, all I can do is voice my opinion. As an American I already have taken a stance against this war, so this stance is just one more that any one who feels free to discuss it with me is welcomed to do. Now you will read that India is afraid of spillover from more strife should he be executed. Well, I too second that emotion.

India says do not hang Saddam - reasons why not?
Kiran Chaube
Dec. 26, 2006

The reason for not hanging Saddam is simple; he is a leader of a group in Iraq. Whatever he did was bad but at the same time capital punishment against him is equally reprehensible. It will only escalate the civil war in Iraq. It will bring more Sunnis to streets as suicide bombers who see him as an icon of Iraq. He is popular in Sunni communities because he decidedly won again the Shiites in a war that started long ago.

The people who are in charge of Iraq today has no moral rights to hang Saddam. The reason is these are the people who were his enemies. The execution of Saddam will be recorded in history as brutal part of the continuation of a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites.

There are larger reason for not hanging him. After all he did not lie on ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’. While Saddam’s actions were reprehensible, what is his opposition Shiites and Kurds are doing is equally reprehensible if not more. If he is executed now, some of the same people who are executing him today will be executed later as the Sunnis gain control after some time – the civil war will continue for ever.

Saddam is already dead. If he is left alone, he can do little to get back to power. Sunnis have new leadership anyway. The baathists exist but they do not have much of a confidence in this old Saddam anyway.

There is another reason for sparing his life. His execution may turn into civil wars not only in Iraq but also in several other countries including India and Pakistan.

According to media reports, as an Iraqi appeals court upheld the death sentence awarded to Saddam Hussain, India expressed itself against it saying no step should be taken which could delay restoration of peace in the troubled country.

”We have seen reports which said that appeals court has confirmed death sentence" awarded to Hussain, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said here.

"It is our hope that the sentence will not be carried out and the former President's life would be spared," he said.

Sarna said New Delhi also hopes that "no steps are taken which might obstruct the process of reconciliation and delay restoration of peace in Iraq."