Well its been done now, and we can only sit back and watch what happens, I surprised that they actually went ahead and executed Saddam, as to me the negative effects that this could have on the Iraq situation are dramatically increased and I do believe that we will only make a martyr of Saddam.
However can the situation get any worse? It is barely being controlled right now, I was listening to a Five Live broadcast (British talk radio station) and a representative from Amnesty International was putting across the point of view that it was against Saddam's human rights to be executed, what is fact that is that he did kill tens of thousands of people, he ignored their human rights, he tortured and persecuted communities for lil or no reason except that their culture was different to his.
This topic could be taken completely off line, we could pose the question, Does a person who breaks the law, for serious crimes such as murder, rape, child abuse deserve to have human rights? As these people have clearly ignored the human rights of the victims....
However the death penalty, should we have it, I do believe that we should, the problem I have with it, is I don't trust our legal services, I do not believe the police do find the right person, and that they will often find someone 'suitable' to meet the media frenzy that clamours for a culprit. Of course this is not the fault of the police, this is more and more influenced by the media, it scares me that, people who are not elected, have more and more power to shape and determine what news we will be told the feelings that we should have, and if anything some of the previous posts in this thread have shown how propaganda and spin can influence so easily. In the UK we abolished the Death penalty, one of the main reasons that the people are corrupt, convictions were being overturned, all because people needed to have results. If I could be assured that the person is 100% guilty, then I believe there is a case for the death penalty, but can that really be proved?
Anyway going back to the topic of Saddam Hussain, why did we go to Iraq? Was it because their was breaches of human rights and people were being persecuted? Or was it because Iraq is one of the last reserves of oil? How would we feel if we was invaded and taken over because we had a resource that only we could provide and others wanted it?
If we are the just and human concious nations that we proclaim to be, then why are we doing nothing about the atrocities happening in Africa, were tens of thousands of people live in fear of their lives everyday?
It is also very important to remember as pointed out by someone else in another thread, that the USA and through them the UK have state sponsored nearly every dictator, and tyrant that has come through in the last 50 years its when they turn round and say no to us, that we suddenly proclaim them as a evil person, a dictator etc.
Therefore, yes we know that Saddam is guilty, but what about the people who supplied him with weapons, who armed him, who backed him even while he was carrying out those atrocities? They are just as guilty, and I do believe that when history is looked back on, we shall see that Bush and Blair, to a lesser extent, (only because I feel Blair is a weak man) can easily be considered war criminals such as the likes of Saddam.
So to me I feel that Saddam should of been left to rot in prison, however he has been put to death, right or wrong we can only wait to see the consequences, but if there has been the slightest pleasure to his victims, then, well actually pleasure is the wrong word, but if it brings a certain amount of peace to his victims then it could be worthwhile, but if the outcome is that hundreds of thousands of people are further killed then really is it all worthwhile?