As I indicated last evenin [1]g, I’m not overly happy, on an instinctive level, with the amount of attention being paid to the death of Saddam Hussein, thinking that it gives the man far more attention than he deserves. From my personal vantage point, it was almost an anti climax, something that we all knew was going to happen the moment they dragged his butt out of that rabbit hole, three years ago.
Such rabid publicity could only provide a platform for the anti death penalty people, the Europeans , United States liberals, CNN, etc. to ply their trade and keep Saddam from justice. The reaction of western anti death penalty types as I’ve listed here, was regrettably predictable. But it does provide an interesting confirmation to appoint I’ve made last night about the cultural values they bring to the table, versus those in force within the middle east.
Yet, even so, I can’t say I’m surprised that the media has been spending a great deal of time on this, though some predicted that they would not… saying for example tapes of his execution wouldn’t be released.
In the end, and my personal feelings on giving this animal undue attention aside, there was a need for it, I think. There are an awful lot of Iraqis who have been fervently wishing for this day to occur. Some closure for Saddam’s victims is certainly apropos, and just as certainly, there would be a number of people who would question whether not execution and actually been carried out, if such images were not made available. I suppose such as the state of things in Iraq today, after so many years of this tyrants rule, that everything is cause for suspicion.
In the end, I guess, such coverage was not about him, but about his victims. After all, he’s not exactly relishing the attention he’s getting at the moment, I should think…. and that’s fitting, I think.
The interesting part of this, was that there was no mass demonstration, no rioting, no car bombing, performed in support of Saddam, As many predicted there would be. Granted, that it’s still early yet… It could happen. But I tend to think it won’t.
At the same time, while the international channels (including some radio channels I’ve sampled this morning….) are showing Iraqis celebrating this animal’s death, the usual leftists suspects in the news media here in the United States have been muted on the point. Apparently, Iraqis being happy and free of a tyrant, is a set of conditions that the left end of the news media would rather not report. Might make President Bush, and with him, America, look good.
One final point;
An awful lot of time and spit has been wasted on whether or not the death of Saddam Hussein is going to ‘change Iraq’. The usual suspects are chanting the usual mantra about how his death isn’t going to change Iraq for the better. I see these efforts as misguided; Iraq was changed the moment he was deposed… and secondarily the moment he was captured. His death at the hands of his own people, as I have suggested, was a foregone conclusion, once THOSE events took place. The question that our press here should be asking is” “What would be different had he remained alive?”
For my part, I suggest that Iraq would have been a more violent place. Both from people angry that justice had not been served, and from people seeking his reinstatement as dictator for life. Both of those situations will not now happen, and I can’t say that I’m unhappy about that.