Today, the online edition of the San Francisco Chronicle published a great piece concerning opposing world views about the recent Iraqi court decision to uphold Saddam Hussein’s death sentence.

The article notes that while most Iraqis (source? Allah knows…) “would welcome a swift execution” of their former dictator, many foreign governments and internationals are left stuck in the midst of a moral dilemma. Interestingly, many of the countries allied with the United States’ “War on Terror” – and thus partially responsible for the murder of nearly 60,000 Iraqi citizens (conservative estimate) – have expressed reservations with the whole concept of a death penalty. Yeah, ferrizzle….

But don’t get your panties in a jumble just yet – such moral quandaries are bound to be side-swiped by the all-too-real game of politics – which, evident by the brutal invasion and military occupation of Iraq, has no room for unwavering moral principles (unless you’re Al-Aqaeda of course).

This, however, is not to assume that an international reluctance (façade or not) to support the execution of Saddam Hussein doesn’t take into consideration the best interest of Iraqis (at least nominally). In fact, many foreign officials have expressed opinions similar to that of common Iraqis…

One Baghdad resident told a reporter: “This is a just sentence because Saddam oppressed the Iraqi people, but I think it came at the wrong time because we’re living through a cycle of violence.” A shopkeeper said, “I just hope they let him die naturally, because if we execute him, his followers will unleash mayhem,” but a university student commented: “I think his death will end violence from Sunnis, and they’ll be forced to negotiate for reconciliation.”

Don’t worry though – the international community is not in complete disagreement over every aspect of Hussein’s trial, conviction, and sentence. No way Jose! If there’s one thing about all this that they do agree on – it’s America’s responsibility for the political debacle and legal parody that resulted. In fact, France’s Le Monde recently published an editorial claiming:

History will undoubtedly show that the fall and the arrest, as well as the trial of the former tyrant and his deputies was from start to finish an American affair.

Some have even gone so far as to accuse the United States of wanting to rush Hussein’s execution in order to save face in the global arena:

Now that the ex-dictator is scheduled to be hanged soon, a second trial that could have been very embarrassing to Team Bush will not be allowed to play out in court; in his defense in that case, Saddam could have presented evidence of the considerable support he had received in the past from the U.S. and other Western governments, especially from the administrations of past Republican presidents of the U.S.

I, however, see the issue from an entirely different perspective. I think that in order to protect our freedoms from Islamic fundamentalists like Saddam Hussein, we must not only execute his Al-Qaeda ass, but air that sh*t live on HBO for everyone to watch, learn from, and take pride in our abilities to bring some sense of civilized order to those sand-dwelling Neanderthals living in the Middle East!

Read the article here.

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