Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti: April 28, 1937 – December 30, 2006

Two days ago, on the 30^th of December, 2006, in the early mornings of Eid al-Adha, Saddam Hussein was hanged from the very gallows that he used as punishment. He was hanged till he died, and in the following days was buried near his home village in Tikrit.

Normally when a, ‘bad guy’ dies in the movies, the crowd gets a sense of relief or closure of sorts. But I think I won’t be the only one saying that, come Saddam’s death, lots of us don’t feel that way. Mixed emotions would be the best way to summarize what goes on in people’s minds. For the crimes he committed Saddam did deserve to die. And in that regard, it’s fair that he got what he deserved. But this simple idea has so many other complications around it that raises two important questions:

1) Was Saddam’s trial a fair one?

2) If it was, then can it be applied to other Head’s of States that are responsible for genocides and deaths of innocents?

These questions, more importantly the second one, obviously have very profound implications. I’m going to let you decide for yourself what’s what.

xx

M

[edit] P.s. This is only a small article to highlight the event. Another article to come up to discuss the event. [edit]