Stupidity sans frontieres

by Obadiah Shoher

The world is oh so sensitive. Thousands die in Iraq in barbaric manner - that’s ok. Saddam, a reasonable autocrat who helped the US against Iran and had no plans against Israel, is sentenced to death - that is welcome. His execution, however, was less than neat - that is deplorable and, in Bush’s opinion, not sufficiently dignified. As if the court-ordered execution establishes one’s dignity.

Shiite court sentenced 69-year-old Saddam in a mock trial for the events which happened quarter a century ago and don’t constitute a crime by wartime standards. Shiite spectators cheered and danced at his execution. Saddam was refused the military death by shooting and shamefully hanged while the crowd chanted the Shiite cleric al Sadr’s name, Muqtada. Justice? Just vengeance? No, sectarian strife.

The US ousted Saddam and gave him in for execution to vehemently anti-American al-Sadr. Saddam went up the gallows quite and steady, refused to wear the hood, and mocked the Shiite leader with his last words. A model Sunni man suffering in the hands of Shiites and the Americans. Iran finally laid its hands on Saddam after twenty-eight years of the personal conflict which started when Saddam expelled the exiled Ruhollah Khomeini from Iraq. Treacherous Americans (listen, Israel!) turned on their man after years of supporting him against Iran.

Americans could see themselves faced with Iranian nuclear threat, but the Arab world firmly imagines the US-Iran axis. Arabs cannot believe that the US government is so stupid as to unwittingly side with pro-Iranian Shiites in Iraq. Jordan, a “friend” of Israel and a key US ally in the Middle East, hosted thousands-strong demonstration with slogans, “Death to America and Iran” after Saddam’s execution. Jordanians and the Arabs in general are fearful of the Shiite axis that the US helps to build.