In the middle of a particularly passionate conversation with a friend, he suddenly assumed a momentary garb of amnesia, forgot we were in the midst of an intense argument and asked me what I felt about Saddam Hussein’s execution. I mumbled something unintelligible to which he reacted with an, ‘I think Bush should be hanged till death next.’
Hmmmm….
Truth is I have been mildly disturbed about the execution, its timeline, its nature, and its highly obvious aftermath. I have been hungrily reading any news item, editorial, internet pop-up that only continues to corroborate my own understanding. Which again depends on what my source is.
When I was reading from the CNN website, a particular link interested me. Labelled ‘Protests and Celebrations’ it displayed nine photographs which expressed precisely ONE ‘Protest’ photograph and EIGHT ‘celebration’ photographs. However, there was one link which stated the Taliban’s reaction to the execution, which of course was unfavourable. The fact that Saddam was hanged on the day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival which should ideally be ‘a day of forgiveness and not revenge’ angered Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, who was described as ‘a former Taliban defense minister and top insurgent commander’. Very interesting that Taliban is recognized as a ‘military outfit’ by the U.S. and has complete and explicit intentions of overthrowing Hamid Karzai’s government, who incidentally was the U.S. appointed interim president. Thereafter of course he won in a landslide ‘the democratic way’, but not without violent complaints of irregularities [read this]. Taliban’s reaction used ‘infidels’ and ‘jihad’ in plentitude. Purposeful, yet quite ineffective. I smiled to myself.
The BBC site was better. It recorded ‘mixed reactions’ to Saddam’s execution in far more comforting proportions. It also had an interesting yet very political study of the future of Iraq. ‘Things might get better. But things can certainly become worse.’
Bush has shown a serious lack of foresight. By choosing a Special Iraqi Tribunal that was trained by American, British and Australian experts, which went on to execute Saddam on Eid al-Adha, much too early in the 30 days permission since the verdict is announced, he has managed to anger a small but strong number. Plenty of Muslims the world over have expressed their dissatisfaction about the same and subsequently minor imperfections such as Bush’s deep slumber during the execution and his jolly gloating over possessing Saddam’s personal revolver are steadily fuelling the raging inferno of anti-Bushism.
I was watching a reporter on T.V. question a young, Indian girl as to why Bakr-id celebrations had been low-key this year. She replied with a diffident ‘Saddam has been executed.’ The reporter proceeded to ask her if she knew who Saddam Hussein is. She said no, she did not.
Bush does not realize it perhaps, but Saddam-the martyr has been born. And he can only grow.
I am therefore, midly disturbed about the bloody aftermath that awaits us.
Also the person who made the video of Saddam’s execution has been arrested. Although his video quickly contradicted the dignity and rectitude of the hanging in the official video released, I am only glad. Videotaping someone’s last moments is nothing but pitiless and insensitive.
A highly morbid first post of the new year. But such is the world we live in.
Oh well…Happy New Year folks!
Hmmmm….
Truth is I have been mildly disturbed about the execution, its timeline, its nature, and its highly obvious aftermath. I have been hungrily reading any news item, editorial, internet pop-up that only continues to corroborate my own understanding. Which again depends on what my source is.
When I was reading from the CNN website, a particular link interested me. Labelled ‘Protests and Celebrations’ it displayed nine photographs which expressed precisely ONE ‘Protest’ photograph and EIGHT ‘celebration’ photographs. However, there was one link which stated the Taliban’s reaction to the execution, which of course was unfavourable. The fact that Saddam was hanged on the day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival which should ideally be ‘a day of forgiveness and not revenge’ angered Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, who was described as ‘a former Taliban defense minister and top insurgent commander’. Very interesting that Taliban is recognized as a ‘military outfit’ by the U.S. and has complete and explicit intentions of overthrowing Hamid Karzai’s government, who incidentally was the U.S. appointed interim president. Thereafter of course he won in a landslide ‘the democratic way’, but not without violent complaints of irregularities [read this]. Taliban’s reaction used ‘infidels’ and ‘jihad’ in plentitude. Purposeful, yet quite ineffective. I smiled to myself.
The BBC site was better. It recorded ‘mixed reactions’ to Saddam’s execution in far more comforting proportions. It also had an interesting yet very political study of the future of Iraq. ‘Things might get better. But things can certainly become worse.’
Bush has shown a serious lack of foresight. By choosing a Special Iraqi Tribunal that was trained by American, British and Australian experts, which went on to execute Saddam on Eid al-Adha, much too early in the 30 days permission since the verdict is announced, he has managed to anger a small but strong number. Plenty of Muslims the world over have expressed their dissatisfaction about the same and subsequently minor imperfections such as Bush’s deep slumber during the execution and his jolly gloating over possessing Saddam’s personal revolver are steadily fuelling the raging inferno of anti-Bushism.
I was watching a reporter on T.V. question a young, Indian girl as to why Bakr-id celebrations had been low-key this year. She replied with a diffident ‘Saddam has been executed.’ The reporter proceeded to ask her if she knew who Saddam Hussein is. She said no, she did not.
Bush does not realize it perhaps, but Saddam-the martyr has been born. And he can only grow.
I am therefore, midly disturbed about the bloody aftermath that awaits us.
Also the person who made the video of Saddam’s execution has been arrested. Although his video quickly contradicted the dignity and rectitude of the hanging in the official video released, I am only glad. Videotaping someone’s last moments is nothing but pitiless and insensitive.
A highly morbid first post of the new year. But such is the world we live in.
Oh well…Happy New Year folks!
13 comments:
i dont understand what all the whining is all about...the man was a mass murderer...he killed other muslims...so how does it matter if they hanged him on Bakr-id?
Even if it is the day of forgiveness...i dont think too many people would care if the Leader of the Somalian rebels in Ethiopia got captured and executed on Bakr-id...and he's muslim...
saddam deserved to be hanged. and he was. essentially the day is irrelevant. but not in a particularly sensitive case as this one.
you forget that iraq, once a thriving and prosperous economy, is reeling under the effects of a bloody war. the search for the weapons of mass destruction was obviously a sham. and protecting the suffering civilians was a joke...their state has only worsened...and it is not going to look up for a while.
it is interesting that iraq has the third richest [proven] oil reserves in the world, after saudi arabia and iran. the real intentions of the U.S. invasion therefore,requires little common sense.
so when the muslims are angry the world over, and they feel they are being persecuted, choosing a holy day of forgiveness to execute saddam is only stupid because it is looked upon as a cold challenge.
and saddam hussein was not executed on bakr-id gagan ;-)
"vulgarity" has scaled new heights.
personally, I dont consider myself qualified enough to pass my verdict on saddam hussain. That he has been tried in court and proved guilty of heinous crimes against humanity,hence sentenced to death sounds natural. After all no criminal deserves mercy, it appears. But this is just the beginning.The mills of justice grind slowly, but grinds exceedingly fine.
Saddam rose to power after he joined the baath party in the 50's which relieved iraq from the the long arms of monarchy under faisal II. Subsequently, there was a power struggle within the baath party.
Saddam consolidated power within the party riddled with profound tensions and was led to involve himself in assassination plots of key members of the baath party which won the favour and the backing,technical and financial, of the americans.he continued to enjoy their support as he moved up the heirarchy in iraq,through the 60's and the 70's.Saddam's organizational prowess was credited with Iraq's rapid pace of development in the 1970s.He soon became the architect of Iraq's foreign policy and represented the nation in all diplomatic situations. He was the de facto ruler of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979.
Shortly after the islamic revolution in 1979,Sunni versus Shi'ite differences assumed dangerous proportions and it resulted in a futile but bloody,eight year war that ended in a stalemate.
There were hundreds of thousands of casualties. Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins.Saddam borrowed a tremendous amount of money from other Arab states during the 1980s to fight Iran and was stuck with a monstrosity of a war debt.Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, Saddam desperately sought out cash once again, this time for postwar reconstruction.
The end of the war with Iran served to deepen latent tensions between Iraq and its wealthy neighbor Kuwait. Saddam saw his war with Iran as having spared Kuwait from the imminent threat of Iranian domination. Since the struggle with Iran had been fought for the benefit of the other Gulf Arab states as much as for Iraq, he argued, a share of Iraqi debt should be forgiven. Saddam urged the Kuwaitis to forgive the Iraqi debt accumulated in the war,but the Kuwaitis refused, claiming that Saddam was responsible to pay off his debts for the war he started.
The colossal extent of Kuwaiti oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region.Saddam alleged that the Kuwait slant drilled oil out of wells that Iraq considered to be within its disputed border with Kuwait. Given that at the time Iraq was not regarded as a pariah state, Saddam was able to complain about the alleged slant drilling to the U.S. State Department.
As Iraq-Kuwait relations rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving conflicting information about how the U.S. would respond to the prospects of an invasion. For one, Washington had been taking measures to cultivate a constructive relationship with Iraq for roughly a decade. The U.S. also sent billions of dollars to Saddam to keep him from forming a strong alliance with the Soviets.
this led to the iraq's invasion of kuwait and later the gulf war. the rest is political history.
this to me seems like a leader who was a puppet in the hands of circumstances. I am not sure a death sentence to man, who once led the country to its days of economic glory goes well with most of iraq's populace. and to add insult to injury is a tasteless telecast of saddam's execution which had a message labled all over it:
"hang" on,folks!(forgive the pun) You a'int seen anything yet!
oops it was rather long was'nt it!!
I could'nt agree more with you when you say "Bush does not realize it perhaps, but Saddam-the martyr has been born. And he can only grow."
thought i'll put my pai's worth too ;-)
BTW dangling conversations is my new avtaar!
cheers
pai
aaaah a world of knowledge you always present eh?
learnt quite a lot...thank you ;-)
and i must say, melikes the new avtaar...cheers!
still...they are a confused lot those people..half of them wanted him dead because of what he did to their half....and the other half is as hot blodded as ever about it cause its a big victory for the other half!.....yahoo.
And about america....all i have to say is while we all sit here grumbling they come and do a clean sweep of resources....does it occur to anybody that its called "Foundations of Superpower status 101"?
they are clever bastards.....bloody horrible bastards...but still clever.
And people in India should just stop painting the we-care-for-saddam picture. if u care show ur support for their innocent. give food, donate money to the Red Cross. thats all that matters.
Just passing by.
Heavy work load but will come back.
Love the colours. Can't figure out how you managed the widescreen look. Help?
tathar faelivrin: i think more than the sympathy for the individual in question, it is a recognition of the blatant exploitation of power and people.
ts: the upgraded version on blogger, and i quote, 'owns!'
heh heh...and thanks for dropping by ;-)
Can we have a less depressing post?
Can we have a post on what you thought of My Name is Red (other than just niiice?) :P
hey....coming back after a long time!!!
hoiw u doin?
WHAT THE MESSAGE IS
Remember that before the first
Gulf War as it is called,
George Bush said to his pal Hussein,
"Let not your plans be stalled--
Whatever you do in the region
We will not interfere, take siege in."
Saddam Hussein could hardly wait,
Bush so ambivalent,
It was, as to invade Kuwait
License equivalent,
Permission well-known plans to essay
From President of the USA.
It was perhaps a chance to show
He didn´t take no guff,
Old George from any so-and-so
So he responded tough,
Bombing, next when Hussein surrendered
Began a ground war: answer tendered.
Sadaam was once a friend of ours,
But O he was well-hung,
They mocked as he invoked God´s powers,
Then swiftly justice brung,
Without due process, which I trust
Superfluous to that kind of justice.
The message is, be careful when
Becoming friends with us,
For turning face or coat again
Our coos will turn to cuss,
For our vision of "New World Order"
Is your domain within our border.
Hence the requirement for the word
Teutonic "homeland" which
Could not have--in the Old--occurred,
Association rich
With designations so empiric
For which we wage a war most Pyrrhic.
The other lesson is no guess:
Do not disarm those nukes,
For those disarmed, from the US
Get more than mere rebukes,
Have-nots whom "shock and awe" await;
With havers we negotiate.
Ah, George, he is an old man now,
Yet still can paratroop,
As leaving office--boom, kapow!--
Right into Carlyle Group,
And so we know that office-holders
Have heavy interests on their shoulders.
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