Saddam is Dead

30 December 2006

This morning at 6 AM Iraqi time, Saddam Hussein was hanged, executed for committing murder to the inhabitants of the village Dujail.

Reactions have been typically mixed: from Libya's Khadaffi's ordering three days of national mourning to the UK's politically correct statements that they are against the death penalty.

When you live in a country where the death penalty does not exist, like myself, then a reaction needs to be covered with subtleties indeed. For there is of course a general feeling that in this way, justice is done for all the horrors that Saddam has committed - not only in Dujail, but also in Halabja, against Iran and against many, many Iraqis. Is this type of justice enough, though? Killing a killer may do justice to the feelings of those who survived him (which, I believe, the majority of the people in Iraq find enough reason to execute him), but that is merely an egocentric way of settling things . Executing Saddam after a “fair” trial is justified according to Iraqi law, but merely serves those who believe in external rules that need to be applied (hence the lukewarm reactions of many nations around the world).

What executing Saddam certainly does not do is solve anything in the situation in Iraq. This is not the end of an era - that era already ended when Saddam was chased out of his palaces and captured. The current era in Iraq is one of chaos, civil war and ethnic violence, which is beyond helping by executing a former dictator. The current situation was not caused by Saddam, but by the occupying forces in Iraq and by the nature of the region and the people in the country.

I won't begin to try and suggest a solution for the situation in Iraq, as it is complex beyond my current understanding. What I am trying to express is my doubt whether executing Saddam was any use.

From my Latin classes, I remember Sallustius, writing about the death penalty as something that does not punish, but merely liberates from the current situation that the criminal is in. And indeed, death does not punish and certainly does not change anything for those who remain. It is merely an escape for the person that is executed, not a punishment. Instead, would it not be much more useful to force the convict to do something useful for his people? Forced labour for the rest of his life serving his country in the most modest way? That would at least be a real punishment, for a permanent humiliation, and perhaps could lead to some personal growth for the killer, which, in a spiritual sense, would benefit all of us.

So yes, I do believe that this execution serves no real purpose. May, however, the Iraqi people find a way to deal with their situation and may the other nations have the courage and spirit to add something constructive to that process.

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