Thomas Friedman: A Hanging and a Funeral

This is well, well worth a read. Saved as a Word file.

Money quote is right up front:

The more I read about the hasty, quasi-legal maneuvers used by Iraq’s Shiite leaders to rush Saddam to the gallows on a Muslim holiday, Id al-Adha, and the more I watched the grainy cellphone video of the event, in which a guard is heard taunting Saddam with chants of ‘Moktada! Moktada’ – the Shiite cleric whose death squads have killed hundreds of Sunnis – and the more I read of the insults Saddam spat back, the more it resembled a tribal revenge ritual rather than the culmination of a constitutional process in which America should be proud to have participated.

Remember, those chants of “Moktada” are in celebration of the true victor here, a man who is dedicated to killing our troops and supporting Shiite death squads. And still some say it was all worth it?

The Discussion: 3 Comments

International Herald Tribune reports:

BEIRUT: In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.

On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Saddam has re- emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.

“No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed,” remarked President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot and republished by the official Egyptian news agency. “They turned him into a martyr.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/05/news/arabs.php

Who in the US plans the geopolitical strategy for the Middle East? China? Are they the same people?

January 6, 2007 @ 8:41 am | Comment

Hey, just give it six months. I’m sure it’ll all be sorted out by then!!1!1!

January 10, 2007 @ 6:58 pm | Comment

The Telegraph reports:

“Saddam Hussein’s execution has inspired a gruesome cycle of revenge, with scores of Shia Muslims found hanged from lampposts in Baghdad. . .”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/09/wiraq09.xml

January 11, 2007 @ 2:35 pm | Comment

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