For almost 35 years (1979-2003) Saddam Hussein horrified Iraqis. Bloodshed was a forerunner to his political introduction. When he joined the revolutionary Baath Party as a university student, Saddam assassinated a supporter of Iraqi ruler Abdul-Karim Qassim. With this absurd initiation, Saddam gained currency in the Bath Party. He grew in strength and power. His political stature began to buttress. And it stretched into his becoming Iraqi’s ruler in 1979.
As soon as Saddam ascended to power, he engaged Iran in warfare. This lasted for nearly nine years. Both belligerents suffered costly loss both human and material. Billions of dollars got drained. Millions of innocent citizens- mothers, children, and fathers, etc., were simply slaughtered. Other nations suffered collateral damages too.
Hussein’s mania extended to Kuwait, thus yielding to another imbroglio and blood infested festival. Unlike in the former war, the American government under Bush 41st got involved explicitly.
The principal interest of Saddam Hussein in the above wars with Iran and Kuwait was satisfaction of his selfish greed to emerge as the lord of the Manor in the Arab world. He wanted to take over this position from the Egyptian Anwar Saddat. He equally wanted to wield his power over Iranian/Kuwaiti oil.
All these crazy and lazy ambitions were stymied in 2003 when the U.S. attacked and removed Saddam from his despotic disposition.
Bush 43rd chased Saddam into hiding in 2003. And Saddam’s brutal regime was overturned by both British and U.S. led military might. In March 2003, Saddam Hussein was toppled and overthrown and all his effigies and monuments were bulldozed. Iraqis made mince meat of what was left of Saddam’s sofa. All his evidence of suppression was reduced to rubbles. All his puffiness and attitude exemplified in his imposing postures were demystified by the commoners. He was disgraced from the apogee of grace. He was belittled; especially from the hole he was caught in. The mighty fell from Graceland to Gone land.
But since this terror was torn down Graceland, peace has eluded the country of Iraq. Democracy has been installed yet fighting has remained defiant and unabated. There has been fighting amongst the Shiite’s on the southern border and the Sunni’s in the middle.
Several schools of thought have posited a civil strife in Iraq. They see what has been and is still going on in Iraq as a civil war. And American and coalition forces are caught in the middle of it all. No day passes without the killing of an American soldier regrettably by unsophisticated weapons like the Improvised Explosive Devise (I.E.D.).
Let me quickly salute the courage of those who have put their lives down for the survival of others in this war and preceding ones. We love you all and support you.
On November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging by an Iraqi court wholesomely perceived as American-imposed. This Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced Hussein to death for ordering the execution of nearly 150 Shiites from the city of Dujail following an attempt on his life in 1982. This perception may mar the ruling of this court. The ruling will be seen as doctored and westernized.
As it were, the killing by hanging of Saddam will not resurrect those Saddam himself ordered to be buried alive. It will not also bring the desired peace in Iraq. Hussein’s hanging may rather inflame the current tidal waves in Iraq. It will exhume the buried anger of Saddam’s kinsmen and jeopardize the instituted democracy.
If the ruling and decision of the courts were to be upheld, Americas’ interest and security will be at great and indescribable risk. Saddam Hussein’s death will unite most terrorist cells and Islamic organizations against the U.S. Though Saddam Hussein is not on the same page with Osama bin Laden and his groups, his death will act as catalyst to forming a united army of terrorists against U.S. interest, both at home and abroad. America will not contain the outcome of Hussein’s death by hanging.
What should the U.S. do right away? First, she must play out her protectionist heart by urging the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, to grant Saddam a life in prison sentence. America must do this to better safeguard her people and her interest not only in the Arab world but in Europe, Africa and Asia. Secondly, the U.S. government should work hand-in-hand with other Arab countries, France, Russia, China and Britain in playing this diplomatic card. By so doing, America will be telling the rest of the world that “we are all in this together”. And this will further strengthen the relation of the U.S. and other global participants.
America should not see Saddam’s possible death by hanging as the last straw but the fast draw to regaining lost confidence and trust. Finally, by keeping Saddam under lock down for the rest of his life should not be mirrored as an act of cowardice or retreat by the U.S. government. Rather than that, America will get encomiums and accolades in return.
The United States of America should not further risk its future when it can be saved. World leaders should lend their voices to this golden call. The people of America should put pressure on their elected leaders not to support the verdict of this Iraqi court.
It will be a let down on America’s magnanimity and big-heart.
And if Saddam should be hung, the pain, the pressure, the pinch and punch it will leave on America’s future might be regretted.
1 comment
Mr Uzoma Nduka. This is a very good advice to the people and Government of the United States of American. But I am not optimistic the present government in place, can see this as a way out of the grave yard its forces have been subjected to for sometime now. See images of young American men and woman paying the ultimate price in Iraq, is horrifying, even to those that do not love America, but its leaders think they have a stake and therefore most continue to be a player in that country.
I strongly believe that leaders have the responsibility to protect its citizens, from aggression. The actions of the United states government that follows the tragedy of Sept. 11, can be describe as excessive, though it can be seen as a just defence of its people against terrorism, she most also avoid the excessive fear and zeal that lead to destructive intervention betraying the most fundamental principles she had defended for ages.
Mr Uzoma Nduka, you are like a prophet sent to deliver an important message to the American people. My question is will this message fall on deaf ears? Can the most powerful listen to a voice from the wilderness? History they say, always replay itself, like the story of Julius Caesar , when his wife foresaw his death and pleaded for him not to go to the capitol, or the beggar who stood on the sun waiting to deliver his message to Caesar. All effort to save him fell on deaf ears. This singular action brought about the assassination of Julius Cease, and subsequently a bloody civil war in the old Roman Empire. Americans beware of the ado of