The strange reaction to Saddam's hanging

The Press Gazette records that only 25 people complained to Ofcom about the television footage of Saddam's execution, while 1,000 complained about the eviction procedure on Big Brother.

Whether or not you quite agree with this ranking of priority, do you share my view that there has been something strange about the reaction to the hanging?

Politicians and commentators seem to be furious that someone shouted "Boooooo, down with dictators" or whatever, while ignoring the fact that Saddam was hanged. Now, Saddam and I don't have quite the same way of looking at things, but I am pretty certain that if I were in the same position as he, I'd be more hacked off at being executed than I would at being heckled while it was happening. Then again, perhaps that's just me.

Both John Prescott and David Cameron excused themselves from commenting on the execution, because that was a matter for the Iraqis, before condemning the booing, which apparently is open to foreign criticism.

I'm obviously missing something.

Comments

[Justin Keeble]

What we were upset with was the fact the we were lied as to the manner of the execution. We were told is was conducted with dignity, but we now know that to be a fallacy.

Saddam's execution has shown us why all executions should be filmed and made available to the public, so we may know exactly what is being done in our names.

I am shocked that most politicians are more upset about us learning the truth, than the deplorable manner in which this execution was carried out.

[Nick Anstead]

Isn't the distinction between not complaining about the execution but commenting on the heckling to do with due process? The legal processes leading to an execution (no matter how distasteful or wrong we may think capital punishment) could still be seen as fair, impartial, non-vindictive and evidence based. However, in the case of Saddam Hussein's execution, the audio recording destroyed even the vaguest pretence that the execution was organised through due process. Rather, it looks like a sectarian lynch mob; that brings in question the validity of the whole process (as well as having the potential to cause even civil strife in Iraq).

Actually, in this particular case I don't think there's ever been any doubt as to the political and religious motivations of the trial, but this audio recording made this point so evidently clear that it became increasingly hard to deny it.

[Sean Loewes]

Yes, as your writer pointed out presciently yesterday, the needless abuse only came to light because the cellphone footage was released, and the condemnation followed this, rather than the actual event. This has been the case with all the other examples of abuse in Iraq which have resulted in prosecution. It is extremely disturbing to think of all the examples of abuse which we will never see and therefore never find out about, but which are happening all the same.

[Peter Davies]

I may have missed the point but isn't the problem that the shouty guards weren't saying "down with dictators" but something more along the lines of "We Shia are the masters now, long live Moqtada?"

Easy to see how that might ruffle a few feathers.

[Serf]

Everyone loved the footage but felt they should say something. So condemning the heckling was a good compromise.

[Adam Neilson]

I'm with you on this one; I would have thought Hussein deserved a jolly good taunting, and I too found it ridiculous that politicians and journalists alike were condemning the hanging on those grounds alone. I swear we had less gnashing of teeth over Abu Ghraib.

People seem to be suggesting that the Iraqis involved could be expected to behave reverently but surely for them this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity not only to see the murderous bastard put to death but to give him a tiny proportion of the pain he inflicted on 'his' people over the years. Can you really blame them? The persistent tendency we have in this country (shining beacon of moral justice that we are) to transpose our 'sophisticated' moral values onto people whose plight we cannot understand is befuddling.

Hussein did not deserve to die in dignity and patently, despite what the papers say, he didn't. It's just a shame that some twit filmed it on his phone and put it on the net.

[michael garratt]

I suppose the moral is clear. If you don't want people to say unpleasant things to you as they execute you, it might be better not to gas their friends or families.

[Chris Gillibrand]

One can only be amazed, given their recent history, that both the German and Austrian governments condemned the execution. Would they now have let Hitler (although his suicide prevented a trial) and his cronies off?

Hand in hand with the execution of the leading perpetrators, a process of denazification lead post-war Germany out of the shadows of its immediate past. The analogous process to denazification clearly has not been successfully happening in Iraq. One wonders why.

[Rob McDonald]

Without order and due process, state execution of this nature just looks like another murder. If the punishment is to die, then the conduct of the execution speaks volumes about the executioners. The body being carted away in a pickup with the feet hanging out the back, was one step away to tying him to the tailhook and dragging him down the street. The executioners failed to establish judicial impartiality, and have given the sunni's the impression that its same game, different dealer. This intensely stupid behaviour will cost many more innocent lives in Iraq.

Most interesting though is the authors humerous but sad observation that once again our leading politicians have hidden their moral obligation behind a very thin smoke screen, and in many cases betrayed their own lifelong principles on which they stood publically for election.

[Rob]

Another question I'd like to ask is why are politicians so quick to condemn the leaking of mobile phone footage of the incident? The Iraqi government with the official footage it released would have us believe that the execution was as humane and dignified as could be realistically asked for. But the mobile phone footage reveals the TRUTH of what happened. Thank you to the mobile phone!

[01603 259 274]

Before his execution, did either,(or both)Bush or Blair apologise to Saddam Hussein for their mistaken accusations of his possesion of weapons of mass destruction? I have yet to hear that any have ever been found, but my understanding is that their existence was the reason for our invasion of Iraq.
Sue, Norwich.

[Nick2]

Want a conspiracy theory?

It was all a carefully constructed distraction...

from the fact that Saddam was only tried and executed for one relatively small crime (the murder of 148 people from Dujail), he was then hastily (and it was hasty, wasn't it?) killed before his other crimes could be examined in detail. He was responsible for the deaths of around 1/2 a million people. He was hung over 148.

This is because the West, and most prominantly the US - including members of the current govt, were implicated in these much larger crimes. He was our guy. We funded him. All this kerfuffle about the method of his execution is a smokescreen.

[M. Fernandez, San Francisco, California]

I agree with the article and Michael Garratt.

In a country where 10 or 20 bodies 'showing signs of torture' are dumped on the street routinely (a lovely national passtime in which Saddam Hussein was Iraq's George Best), his hanging too merciful rather than cruel and was only unusual in that he got a trial and appeal first. Frankly, the taunts were only disappointing in that he should have been poked with a stick as well.

Given that Britain is only 10 years on (at least we hope) from its own mindless sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, and the Germans and Italians only 3 generations from genocide and hanging their own dictator (and his girlfriend too), maybe the events in Baghdad cut too close to home for comfort.

[steven]

how to say?
whatever he was a president of a country.
At last, he was killed by his own people.

[steven]

how to say?
whatever he was a president of a country.
At last, he was killed by his own people.