Begging for Saddam

The headline of this story threw me for a moment – “Hussein's niece pleads for father's life”. A bit late, surely?

Thuraya Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, niece of the late dictator, apparently doesn’t want her family members to be executed. Which, when you think about it, isn’t that surprising. I’d be fairly peeved if the US and Iraqi authorities wanted to execute my uncle. But my uncle has not, to my knowledge anyway, committed crimes against humanity. Unlike Hussein and his cronies…

According to the no doubt lovely and well-adjusted Thuraya, Saddam:

"...had not tortured or punished anyone unjustly. All those who say that my brother was executed or this or that was tortured (should know) there was a reason ... a big reason."

The big reason was, presumably, that he just didn’t like the people he tortured and executed. With omnipotent, brutal dictators justice tends to become a highly subjective term and the fact that there is no-one who can challenge the dictator’s idea of justice means atrocities are committed. There may well have been “a big reason” – that doesn’t mean that reason is just or even valid.

Apparently:

“Hussein had a duty as president to defend the country, she said. He tolerated opposition but not those who "harmed the country".”

Harmed the country? How did the victims of Saddam harm the country? By not agreeing with him? By being Kurdish? And how about the argument that Saddam harmed the country? Aside from killing his own people, he also got his country into a long, brutal war with Iran. He then got his country into a war with America and other Western powers by invading Kuwait. That was before his brinkmanship with the UN led to over a decade of crippling sanctions against his people. And to top it all off he then goaded the US into invading his country. The regime of Saddam Hussein is littered with war and murder. He did far more to harm his country than any of his supposed opponents. So if harming the country warrants execution, then Saddam got what he deserved.

And Thuraya's comment to the victims of Saddam?

"I have nothing to say."

Ah, the arrogance of (fallen) power. It really is an astounding double standard – Saddam is a martyr, executed by a harsh and intolerant regime that is propped up by America. Those executed by Saddam’s (at times American backed) harsh and intolerant regime are not even worth a comment.