More on The Execution

By Michael J.W. Stickings

-- The AP is reporting that, in contrast to the State Department and the military, the White House is refusing to criticize the disgusting conduct of the execution. Yet more abdication of responsibility from the masters of it.

-- Meanwhile, according to the Post, the guard who recorded the execution on his cellphone has been arrested by Iraqi authorities. This is the gruesome video that has been circulating around the Internet in recent days. But the problem with the execution wasn't that it was recorded but that it was conducted as it was, as an act of sectarian vengeance with Shiite guards and taunting of the condemned.

-- AMERICAblog: "By now it's clear to everyone not living in a cave that the Saddam execution was a botched, amateurish debacle... Virtually everything that could have been screwed up, was. And now, against virtually all odds, Saddam managed to look good by dying and the Iraqi and U.S. governments are scrambling to do damage control in the face of massive Sunni demonstrations, international condemnation, and the general disgust of pretty much everyone who knows anything about Iraq."

-- Brokaw to Imus (from Crooks and Liars): It all went badly wrong. "And then to say that we are going to install in Iraq a judicial system and a democratic form of government and have something that resembled the worst kind of nightmare out of the old American West."

-- One of the best analyses of Saddam's execution comes from Nir Rosen (via Steve Clemons). Make sure to read Nir's post in full, but here's a key passage: "The unofficial video of the execution, filmed on the mobile cell phone of one of the officials present is sure to further inflame sectarianism, because it is clearly a Shia execution... Predictably, there were celebrations in Shia areas."

-- In addition, another of the best analyses comes from Christopher Hitchens at Slate, who calls Saddam's execution a lynching: "[F]ar from bringing anything like 'closure,' the hanging ensures that the poison of Saddamism will stay in the Iraqi bloodstream, mingling with other related infections such as confessional fanaticism and the sort of video sadism that has until now been the prerogative of al-Qaida's dehumanized ghouls. We have helped to officiate at a human sacrifice. For shame." For shame, indeed. It was a grotesque case of vengeance enabled by the U.S. More: "In spite of his mad invective against 'the Persians' and other traitors, the only character with a rag of dignity in the whole scene is the father of all hangmen, Saddam Hussein himself." Yes, this whole episode has only served to make Saddam, a brutal tyrant, look good. That's not easy to do, but the U.S. and its Iraqi puppets managed it quite well.

It was a gross act of injustice. And, like so much else in this horrible war, a bloody failure.