Killing the President

Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, overthrown by a foreign invasion, is to be executed within 30 days. I have so many types of objection to this that I almost feel unable to do more than sputter and wave my arms around in exasperated anguish. Of course I don't think he was a good man or the people's choice as president. But...

- People who support the death penalty like to think that executions are humane, but they're not. Even lethal injections, supposedly the most painless method, are currently banned in California and Florida because of recent executions where the administration of the drug went wrong. Saddam Hussein is to be killed by hanging. The US banned hanging years ago on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment. I read an eye-witness account of the hanging of Nigerian poet Ken Saro-Wiwa. He didn't die and after leaving him to dangle for a while they tried dropping him again. They hanged him several times before they killed him, and he was conscious, in unbelievable agony, until he died.

- People who think Saddam's regime was unusual have no understanding of what's going on in the world. There are recent African rulers who ate their political enemies. There are scores of dictators running countries. Many countries don't have elections; many do but they're completely rigged. Sure, it's great to overthrow vicious dictators, but only when the populace and neighboring countries call for it - in this case, the Arab world formally condemned the invasion before it happened.

- The American press never seems to refer to Saddam Hussein as president - they call him the dictator. This sort of loaded language helps them justify what they're doing, I suppose. Oh and the Americans aren't executing him. Their puppet regime is. And it was a coincidence that the verdict was delivered two days before the US mid-term elections. A man is being killed in the Middle East for domestic political gain in the United States.

- The Iraqi blogger Baghdad Burning says, "When All Else Fails... … Execute the dictator. It’s that simple." She describes an unfair trial, an unfree press and a foreign occupation that has destroyed her country.

- I'm not a religious person, but I feel in my gut that death is just about the most important thing that happens to us, at least consciously (birth being something we don't experience in the same way), and we must help each other go through it with dignity. Capital punishment is the opposite of that. State executions are about the most barbaric thing that could be done to a person or to a society. It should never happen, no matter what crime a person has committed. Governments would do well to adopt the medical precept "First, do no harm."

- The US invasion and occupation, and now this barbaric murder, are worse than anything Saddam Hussein ever did. More Iraqis are dying under US tyranny than under Saddam's tyranny (and especially over the last ten years of his rule). And the slaughter continues - in fact, it's getting worse. The world needs an international court with the teeth to make the US pay for their murderous acts in Iraq. Everything about this is evil.

See also: Saddam: Hanged for the wrong reason

###