The War is Over!

The War is Over!

The War in Iraq is over. Again. If you thought it was over with the storming of Baghdad, the declaration of the end of major combat operations, the transfer of power or the election of the Constituent Assembly you were wrong. It is over now that Saddam Hussein has been tastefully broadcast around the world hanging from a gallows by balaclava-clad executioners in a video that could just as easily have been choreographed by the late Al-Zarqawi.

Not content to let YouTube and jihadist websites hog all the pleasure of rejoicing in a person’s death, Fox News aired photos of Hussein “Alive” and “Dead”. American news networks were quick to play judge and juror, mounting endless footage of Hussein’s crimes and calling his death a “watershed” for Iraq. A few hours later it was President Bush’s turn, as he called the event “a turning point for Iraq” and emphasized that it was an Iraqi decision made by an Iraqi court that only by the wildest coincidence happened to mirror his wishes exactly.

Hussein did of course have blood on his hands, and we can rest assured that he was almost as guilty as his executioners. He was hung for the killing of 148 men and women on a single day in Dujail in 1982. According to Iraq Body Count, it takes three days for as many people to be killed in today’s Iraq.

Tony Blair was a little more ill at ease with the execution than Bush, as officially he doesn’t believe in capital punishment. But then he is the leader of a party that officially believe in war, privatization, the monarchy or even capitalism.

The Canadian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, responded by emphasizing that our country supports “…the desire of Iraq’s leaders and citizens for peaceful and prosperous future.” Presumably they didn’t mean by executing them.