WEEP FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN

by B. Raman

By deciding to go ahead with the execution of Saddam Hussein, the US has given the Sunni jihadi terrorists one more martyr in their jihad against non-Muslims and one more pretext for indulging in their orgy of killing innocent civilians. It has deepened the divide between the Sunnis and the Shias. It has made the prospects for a reconciliation with the Sunnis of Iraq even more difficult than it is today.

2. US officials have claimed that the decision to go ahead with the execution was taken by the sovereign Government of Iraq. It was not a US decision. The US role was purely to facilitate the due legal process in accordance with the Iraqi laws by the judiciary of independent Iraq. So, the Americans claim.

4. The Muslims of the world are unlikely to believe them. In fact, even not many non-Muslims in the world will believe them. They would believe it was an action prompted by the US as an act of self-justification for invading Iraq. The US advanced three arguments for its invasion: the threat posed by Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the alleged links between the Saddam regime and Al Qaeda; and the demonic nature of the regime, which was allegedly indulging in the brutal suppression of the Shias and the Kurds.

5. The first two reasons have been proved to be false. Only the last reason remains for being used as a fig leaf to cover up the totally illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, the wisdom of which was questioned even by the late Gerald Ford, former Republican President, before his recent death. Saddam's trial and execution could be flaunted as the justification for the US invasion to remove from power a dictator "hated by the Iraqi people" and bring him to justice.

6. Whatever be the merits of the evidence against him, whatever be the legal validity of the judicial process which led to his execution, that is not the way it will be seen by the Muslims of the world. It will be seen as an act of crude vengeance, an anti-Muslim act of what they describe as the leader of the Crusaders against Islam.

7. Even many non-Muslims will see it not as an act of a super power, confident of its power and its ability to prevail over global jihadi terrorism, but as an act of impotent anger of a power, which has been held at bay by the jihadi terrorists. In an article written after the US occupation of Iraq, I described the US policy as follows: "If we can't get Osama's head, let us at least get Saddam's".

8. Saddam's head is at their feet---placed there by a double-dealing quisling regime, which has been openly fraternising with the US and secretly conspiring with Iran against the US.

9. Successive US administrations have shown a chronic inability to read the writing on the wall of the Ummah. The Clinton Administration colluded with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to godfather the Taliban in 1994, in the hope of using it to facilitate the project of the UNOCAL, the US oil company, to bring oil and gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan. The NATO forces in Afghanistan are paying a heavy price for this folly today. The Bush Administration colluded with Iran and anti-Saddam Shia leaders to facilitate their invasion and occupation of Iraq. The result: a defiant Iran which, after having achieved its purpose of getting rid of Saddam and empowering the Shias of Iraq, today spits on the face of the US and Israel, flaunts its growing nuclear capability and undermines US and Israeli interests in the Lebanon. The US has colluded with the regime in Iraq to hasten the execution of Saddam, thereby burning one possible last bridge to the Sunnis of Iraq.

10. I have always held and continue to hold that whatever be the mistakes committed by the US in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is in the interest of the international community that the US prevails against jihadi terrorism in those countries. The failure of the US to prevail could be catastrophic to the rest of the world.

11. That was why I was hoping and praying for the success of the US forces in their brave campaign against the global jihadi terrorists spearheaded by Al Qaeda and the International Islamic Front. I am doubtful over the chances of this happening now.

11. There are increasing numbers of Muslims in the world, who are burning inside their hearts against the US--- each for his or her own reason. Wise policy-makers would have realised the importance of not adding to this anger, even if they are not able to immediately extinguish it. The present US policy-makers seem determined to add to it by one unwise action after another. The execution of Saddam is one more unwise act, which will add to the fire in the heart of many Muslims.

12. They will be asking themselves----it is more than three years since the US captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who orchestrated, on behalf of Osama bin Laden, the massacre of nearly 3,000 innocent civilians in the US on 9/11. He has not been tried so far, not to talk of being executed. Why the hurry in the case of Saddam? Abu Zubaidah, Ramzi Binalshibh, Hambali, Abu Faraj al-Libbi and many others involved in the most cruel acts of terrorism killing hundreds of civilians have not even been tried so far. Why the hurry in the case of Saddam?

13. Rightly or wrongly, they will come to the conclusion that in the US analysis if they try and execute these terrorist leaders, there could be more acts of mass casualty terrorism directed against the US and its nationals.

14. Saddam was not a terrorist. He was just a dictator like many other dictators spawned and fattened by the US in other parts of the world. He was hated by Al Qaeda when he was alive because he was one of the very few secular leaders in the Ummah and because he was a socialist. In the US calculation, the death of Saddam could provoke reprisals, but manageable ones.

15. His head will be a trophy----not comparable to that of bin Laden, but some trophy all the same. Their calculation that acts of Islamic reprisals would be manageable could go seriously wrong as many calculations of the US in the past have gone.

16. The choice in Iraq was between retribution for the past and reconciliation in the future. The US seems to have consciously chosen retribution for the past without worrying about its impact on the prospects for reconciliation in the future.

17. I weep for Saddam. He was a good friend of India and its people. He always stood by us in the best of times and in the worst of times. I remember the days after the Mumbai blasts of March,1993, in which nearly 300 innocent Indian civilians were killed by terrorists trained by the ISI. We went from one intelligence agency to another asking for help in investigating the role of Pakistan. The Americans rebuffed us. Protecting Pakistan and its ISI was more important for them than grieving for the Indians killed and helping India to bring to book those responsible. Saddam rushed to our assistance and helped us in whatever little way he can.

18. Who is a friend? Someone who stands by you in your hour of grief, in your hour of need. Saddam stood by us in our hour of grief, in our hour of need.

19. Let us weep for him.

20. As I am writing this, I am flooded with telephone calls. Are you not watching the TV about the execution of Saddam? Even Sunnis are supporting this, I am told. I don't believe the TV visuals and sound-bytes. I believe the hearts of the Muslims in the streets. They are welling up with anger. I fear for the future.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retired), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, nstitute for Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail address: itschen36-AT-gmail.com )