open Democracy News Analysis - The ghost of Saddam Hussein, Tareq Y Ismael - Comments

DesiraeC on "The ghost of Saddam Hussein"

DesiraeC — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:28:27 +0000

His name itself is associated with the world’s terrorism. He is such a powerful government opponent making the country feel fear because of bad motives he has. Did you see how well President Bush was received during his last surprise visit to Iraq? The mad shoe-thrower who was none too pleased with the lame president’s treatment of his country made an unexpected protest by throwing his shoes at W. The man has been identified as Muntadhar al-Zeidi, an Iraqi journalist. In Muslim culture, showing the sole of your shoe is a symbol of extreme disrespect, but throwing your shoes goes deeper than an insult. Beleaguered Iraqi citizens took off their shoes and threw them at the toppling statue of Saddam Hussein during liberation – that will tell you more about what an insult it is. Bush laughed this off and referred to it as a "sign of a free society," much like payday loans are. If convicted, he is looking at a minimum of two years in prison for insulting a visiting head of state. Protesters burned American flags and threw shoes at a tank in Najaf, apparently because they feel al-Zeidi should be praised for his “courageous” action. Al-Zeidi and his infamous footwear are still in custody. I doubt there’s any way of getting his shoes back. Click to read more on http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/12/16/need-extra-eash-throw-shoes-at-bush/.

alison.gundle on "The ghost of Saddam Hussein"

alison.gundle — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:17:48 +0000

Professor Ismael ought to face up to the uncomfortable truth that Saddam Hussein was able to rise above the sordid circumstances of his execution and win a moral victory in death because he remained true to his principles until the bitter end. He willingly sacrificed his life for his nation. What could be more noble and awe-inspiring than that? If he had abandoned the Palestinian cause, surrendered control of Iraq's oil wealth to American companies or accepted the presence of US military bases on Iraqi soil he would doubtlessly still be alive today. In all likelihood he would be living in comfortable exile under US protection.

His impoverished tribal origins notwithstanding, Saddam Hussein was not "essentially a petty thug" as Professor Ismael claims, but a true patriot and an impressive human being, a tragic hero, whose flaws were ultimately outweighed by his courage and integrity and other redeeming qualities. Paying tribute to the former Iraqi President after his death, his longtime foreign minister, the Chaldean Catholic Tariq Aziz, told his lawyer: "Sadam was a friend, a colleague, a boss and I loved him as a person. I loved Saddam and his imagination and view of Iraq. The day he died, Iraq died with him."

cadabra1 on "The ghost of Saddam Hussein"

cadabra1 — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:22:12 +0000

As an American I feel enormous shame at the amount of blood that Republican administrations have put on the hands of the American people. America has a very long history of bigotry. Many of the American people supported our war in Vietnam as a religious crusade to bring �Democracy� to the heathens. The consequence was the death of millions of Vietnamese. Our war in the Middle East is motivated by the same crusading zeal that derives from our Puritan heritage where we see all those not economically prosperous as morally deficient. Even our uncritical support of Israel is the imposition of a western colonial power on non Judeau-Christians. Now, some think that the current Bush is positioning this country to attack Iran. We are looking at many decades of chaos and strife in this region with no benefit gained. Whatever horrors Saddam Hussein inflicted on the non-Sunni people of Iraq (his war on Kuwait and Iran), he kept the country relatively peaceful, he educated his people, and all the Iraqis (Kurds and Shiias, as well as Sunis) enjoyed a degree of prosperity. I don�t know what the outcome of this mess is going to be, but the European countries have to assert themselves. Europe is mostly responsible for the creation of the State of Israel, arming it with nuclear weapons, and supporting its drive toward hegemony. The consequence of imposing a non-Arab state on the people of this region will only exacerbate turmoil.

The ghost of Saddam Hussein, Tareq Y Ismael

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

On the morning of the first day of the Muslim feast of sacrifice, 30 December, 2006, Arabs and Muslims were greeted by the spectacle of Saddam Hussein's execution. Yet they registered the death of Iraq's strongman and the leader of one of the most powerful Arab nations for three decades with little enthusiasm. Instead, the event served only as an emblem for the sectarian madness that has come to dominate Iraq. A month on, has anything happened to alter this perception?

Apart from the legality of Saddam's trial, which was described by Human Rights Watch as "deeply flawed", marking "a significant step away from respect from human rights and the rule of law", the ambivalence felt by Arabs and Muslims came mainly as a consequence of the timing and circumstance of the execution.

Tareq Y Ismael is professor of political science at the University of Calgary, and editor of the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies. Among his many books are Middle East Politics Today: Government and Civil Society (University Press of Florida, 2001); (co-edited with William W Haddad) Iraq: The Human Cost of History (Pluto Press, 2003); and (with Jacqueline S Ismael), The Iraqi Predicament: People in the Quagmire of Power Politics (Pluto Press, 2004)

Also by Tareq Y Ismael in openDemocracy:

"The Iraq Study Group report: an assessment" (8 December 2006)

Saddam Hussein's execution coincided with the start of the Sunni celebrations of Eid al-Adha, the Shi'a celebrations historically beginning one day later. It is doubtful that this act of unbelievable provocation was happenstance. Rather, it was a reminder by the incumbent Nouri al-Maliki regime of ascendant Shi'a power and the sectarian logic it intends to enforce.

Throughout the Muslim world, the execution came to reinforce two important points:

▪ it reveals the cultural ignorance of the United States in its dealings with other peoples - the execution coinciding with a religious holiday, and moreover, contradicting the dignity that the dead are afforded in Islamic custom (even for Saddam)

▪ it underlines the challenge of lawlessness with which the west has come to deal with Arabs and Muslims.

While it has been suggested that the US attempted to delay the execution, only to be overruled by the al-Maliki government, this is suspicious; the al-Maliki regime, existing only by the good graces and protection of the US, is largely perceived as an extension of American power, and its "sovereignty" notwithstanding, it is hardly an independent actor. On this matter, perception is key.

The circus of Saddam's execution was a metaphor for the sectarian logic that now dominates Iraqi society: Saddam Hussein surrounded and mocked by the partisans of the Shi'a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, his death met by an outburst of Shi'a confessional chants. Where under other circumstances, the dictator's end might have been might met by ecumenical celebration, a hope for new national beginnings, it was under these circumstances an act of blood revenge by a Shi'a lynch-mob.

This sectarian script was established early, as Saddam Hussein was tried and executed not for his larger crimes against the Kurdish people, or Iraqi society writ large, but instead for the Dujail massacre = where Shi'a were the primary victims. Hussein was, of course, quite ecumenical and indiscriminate in his violence, so to hang him for his crimes against the Shi'a community was but to convey Shi'a pre-eminence in the "new Iraq" and to fan the flames of the sectarian divide.

From life to legend

It is a perverse irony that Saddam Hussein, essentially a petty thug, emerged from the grisly fiasco with his dignity and pride intact. Facing his masked tormentors with religious conviction and composed dignity, he cursed the Americans and lionised the Palestinian people. The tyrant thus won undeserved victory in death by appearing a champion of the Arab cause. In the wake of his demise, critics of Saddam bitterly lamented that his brave posture before death has only obscured his real and bloody legacy. Yunan Rizk, an Egyptian historian, wrote in al-Ahram: "Saddam has died but the legend has begun".

Also in openDemocracy on Iraqi politics, violence and justice:

John Sloboda, "Sparing Saddam: beyond victor's justice"
(14 November 2006)

Anthony Dworkin, "Saddam's trial: questions of justice"
(20 November 2006)

Sami Ramadani, "Iraq: not civil war, occupation"
(7 December 2006)

Reidar Visser, "Washington's Iraqi ‘surge': where are the Iraqis? "
(12 January 2007)

Zaid Al-Ali, "The United States in Iraq: the case for withdrawal"
(19 January 2007)

At the regional level, the hanging has led to a hardening in Arab public opinion against Iran. In addition to supporting Saddam's hanging, Iran is widely interpreted as giving implicit sanction to the American enterprise in Iraq; unquestionably, Iran has emerged as a major (perhaps sole) victor in the Iraqi quagmire, its regional influence having expanded as its clients now form the major power-bloc in post-war Iraq.

The Sunni Arab world is increasingly mobilised against the bogeyman of ascendant Shi'a power, with several Arab Gulf states now agitating for a common front against the Iranian threat; some even suggest that they will invest in nuclear technology to counterbalance that of Iran. At the crudest level, the shift in regional power has encouraged the resurrection of popular anti-Shi'a tropes, with the loyalty of Arab Shi'a frequently coming under attack. Shi'a is becoming a byword for fifth-columnist - in effect, rehabilitating a theme first raised by Saddam in his war against Iran and expulsion of Iraqis of Iranian origin.

The hanging of Saddam Hussein has ended his era in Iraq's turbulent history, but its repercussions for Iraq's future may prove disastrous. Iraq's sectarian violence continues unabated, and Iraq's social infrastructure - the education, health, and human resources needed for any successful society - suffers from both neglect and targeted destruction.

The American project in the country, having reinforced the noxious "political sectarianism" in Iraqi politics, may be seeing its endgame, George W Bush's "surge" notwithstanding. The violence that the American invasion and occupation initiated has now developed its own twisted logic, far too complex for the Americans to reverse. Now that the American misadventure in Iraq has inaugurated a toxic regional politic, the long-term and regional implications of the chaos in Iraq cannot be overstated.

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