Saddam Hussein

This year will end with the image of the moments before Saddam Hussien’s execution flashing around the world, a tyranny with a noose around his neck and masked guards moving quickly to make sure his death is not somehow avoided at the last minute.

Though killed in the name of justice and there is no doubt that he needed to be brought to account, the method by which he was called to account has demeaned the justice that rightly placed him in the dock.

Saddam was guilty of heinous crimes against humanity. Of that there is little doubt. But the death penalty used against anyone, even Saddam Hussien, is an admission of failure. It says we shall stop seeing the guilty as human. Instead we shall do to them what we objected to them doing to us. When we give up on some-one, anyone, even a terrible tyrant like Saddam, in that way, we give up on ourselves

There will be much debate as to whether Saddams’ death will solve any of the problems Iraq needs to overcome to have a real democratic future. The manner of his death at our hands, (be not fooled by the “it wusny me” actions of the regime that handed him over to the Iraqi’s a mere 25 minutes before his execution), will mean that democratic and just solution is much further away with many more deaths in its path.