Saddam’s execution: A pivotal moment or just another day in the bloody history of Iraq?

Sunday 30^th December should have been a momentous day. It should have been a day in which Iraqis, together, stood in memory of the almost countless number of victims of one of the most psychopathic and vicious dictators to have lived. It should have been a day in which Iraqis safely went about their daily routine, not having to worry that their sons would have their throat slit just because his name was Ali or Omar. Instead whilst many feel euphoria, albeit passing, at the dispatching of Saddam Iraq remains in a state where the present is all-too consuming for the past to be given the reflection that it deserves.

Amidst this background you'll probably hear Bush & co. claiming this as a victory for justice, the Iraqi people and cut off a lifeline to the 'insurgency'. Theirs opponents will claim that his execution will pour oil of the flames of insurgency and worsen an already ‘apocalyptic’ situation in parts of Iraq. The reality is that both ‘sides’ in Iraq are, as usual, far from the truth.

Bush & co.’s unrelenting desperation in Iraq only drives them to squeeze any news dry of its potential propaganda. Ba’athists were never a major part of the ‘insurgency’ for Iraq’s mushkila kubra/biggest problem is sectarian violence. Perhaps Saddam did have a hand in the violence through covert funding or messages but it is very unlikely that he was the major catalyst, as evidence one needs only to recall the scenes of Saddam being dragged out of his hole upon capture. Rather the murderous ‘insurgency’, shamefully called al-muqawama or ‘resistance’ by some, has proven itself so adept at handling whatever the opposition throws its way.

Conversely the so-called anti-war activists claim his death will cause more violence than his existence and that justice can never be delivered while Iraq remains occupied. Well we all knew Saddam was guilty so his guilty sentence was right, regardless of the tribunal’s fairness or legitimacy. On the subject of legitimacy the US government, anxious to shoot some political hoops on the international level, pressed ahead with one of the freshest experiments in western justice rather than handing him over for execution immediately. Note that this form of justice is packaged solely for 'them' rather than 'us and them'. Ultimately, though, the rough and raw Iraqi way got its way and Saddam had his life squeezed from him at the end of a rope. In response to this the same ‘anti-war’ activists also claim that Saddam’s execution is just another example of (Western) victor’s justice playing itself out in the developing world. To an extent this is true for how can one deny this when instigators of massive violence in the region (from the west and east) sit so far from the dock? Yet who can deny that Saddam’s victims – the majority of Iraqis – aren’t pleased by an execution that’d some had never even dreamed of dreaming? And isn't partial justice better than none at all?

On Iraq's future I try to be optimistic; indeed how could one, living so comfortably in the west, be otherwise when so many Iraqis relive horrors on daily basis, almost a parody of Groundhog day in Hell? Or at least I try to find for shreds of hope amid the rubble. But the reality is that Iraq is showing all the tell-tale signs of a continuing slide towards years of seemingly-endless violence. Its wretched post-invasion existence as a pseudo-state only leaves the country at the mercy of those that have the least interest in its success: the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and Jordan to name but a few. Furthermore Iraqi civil society, loaded with years of increasing sectarianism and having lived an unimaginably torturous modern history, is now, unsurprisingly, imploding. Unsurprisingly this implosion is, of course, fuelled by the realist geo-politics of its neighbours.

And it is in deepest of sadness and despair with which I arrived at the conclusion that unless the aforementioned states agree to prioritise Iraqi security above their own cynical interests then Iraq will continue to be their battleground for years to come.