Saddam Hussein to die in 30 days

Today, an appeals court upheld the death sentence imposed on Saddam Hussein. Saddam had been sentenced to die on November 5, 2006, for his role in the 1982 massacre of 148 Shia Iraqis in the town of Dujail.

Under Iraqi law, the execution must be carried out 30 days after final sentencing. Saddam has exhausted all of his appeals, which means that he will almost certainly die within the next month.

The head of the Iraqi high tribunal, Aref Abdul-Razzaq al-Shahin, told a news conference in Baghdad that the death sentence against Saddam would in fact be carried out within the next 30 days.

The execution of Saddam Hussein will take the catastrophe of Iraq to new levels. Saddam was the only person who held together the Iraq state; his death represents the disintegration of that country’s last sinew. He will be made into a martyr, a symbol of the occupation and its aftereffects. There will be many who will take up arms in his name.

No matter how tyrannical or despotic Saddam Hussein was while in power, his capture, trial, and execution at the hand of an occupying power will redeem him in the eyes of many Iraqis.

And who are we, America, to condemn a foreign leader to die? When did we take up the crusader’s banner to bring justice to other lands? Yet never has there been an empire in history that has used its power so violently, its authority so brutishly, its weight so recklessly. Now, with the hanging of the last king of Iraq, we will spawn a demon in the Middle East.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 at 11:31 am and is filed under International Relations, The Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.