Witnessing the last moments of a man’s life is never a pleasant sight, even if it involves a man like Saddam Hussein.
After a year long trial, Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq was hanged on the 30th of December 2006, as we all know by now. The verdict, however flawed is still considered as unprecedented in the greater Middle East. The trial and the following execution were largely due to the American presence in Iraq. It’s reasonable to believe that had Saddam Hussein been under the care of the Iraqis from the get go; he would have met his fate much sooner.
As to the reason for deciding to trial Saddam for the crimes he committed in the town of Dujail, is a matter of discussion. During his reign in power he committed hundreds of such atrocities, some of them involving more victims than the city of Dujail.
If the courts where to examine the 8 year Iran – Iraq war, the attack on Kuwait in 1990 or the killing of 5000 Kurds in the town of halabche in 1988, there would also had to be fingers pointed in the direction of Arab leaders and most western governments.
From the time the American government decided to use Saddam Hussein as a leverage in controlling Iran’s power after the revolution of 1979, the funding of these policies has always been taken care of by wealthy Arab Countries (such as Kuwait who during the Iran-Iraq war was an active supporter of Saddam Hussein but later found itself in the receiving end of Saddam’s chokehold).
The west also provided Iraq with intelligence and weapons.
But it was the people of Iran, Iraq and Kuwait who ultimately bur the brunt of this theater directed by the west and produced by the Arabs.
Saddam Hussein was in power for more then 30 years and during his time he was responsible for killing more than 1 million Iraqi shi’as and over 300 000 Sunnis. In the 8 year war against Iran, the Iranians suffered more then 1 million in causalities, injured and countless of people displaced.
120 000 Iranian soldiers fell during the war, some of them from chemical attacks by the Iraqis. Even after 17 years after the war ended thousands more are still suffering from the effects of exposure to chemical weapons.
Saddam acquired those weapons of mass destruction through companies in France, Germany and the Netherlands. The technology and the know-how in building these weapons were given by the west approval.
Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who got rid of each and every one of his opponents with no sense of remorse or mercy. After the downfall of Saddam, tens of mass graves have been discovered around Iraq, where hundreds of Iraqi have been buried after apparent mass executions.
In 1991, he ordered the shelling of the holy city of Karbala, (a predominately shi’a city and considered by many muslims around the world as a holy place) and conducted direct attacks on the holy mosque of Imam Hussein, as a reprisal against the shi’a uprising.
Under his power, the sunni minority had but all of the power but now find it very difficult to lose that control. This is one of the most important reasons for the insurgency and resistance among sunni Iraqis against the current government led by the majority shi’a and sunni kurds.
A part of the Iraqi Sunnis and other Arab block, are eager to make a martyr out of Saddam Hussein by using the flawed execution of Saddam.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq of Iran, a terrorist organization based in Iraq has also sided with the ba’thist party who regard in presenting Saddam Hussein as an Arab martyr and a hero.
His death symbolizes the end of an era of both his reign and the ba’thist party. It is now up to the sunnis to decide whether they would like to use their fair share of power in the newly established government or to continue the futile resistance against the will of the majority of Iraqis.
Former ba’thist, Al-Qaeda and Mojahedin-e Khalq of Iran are the ones who benefit most from a chaotic and violent Iraq. Order and progress is not in the interest of neither of these groups.
As far as the Iranian neighbor is concerned it seems probable that the Iranians share a common goal with the Iraqi government in a stable and calm Iraq.
There is now a government in power in Iraq, whose leaders have in the past either spent years in exile in Iran or have close connections with the Iranian government. What purpose would the Iranian have in fighting and undermining a government who share most its own goals and visions.
The real perpetrators in the meddling and undermining of the current government of Iraq can be found in the western borders of Iraq in countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
A fear in shi’a stronghold in the region is what is motivating these countries to support and fund the ongoing conflict and sectarian divide.
Those are the true enemies of Iraq and the Iraqi people.
Karim Haghi
09.01.2007