Saddam Hussein
So, they’ve killed him. I don’t begrudge the right of the Iraqi people to find him guilty of appalling crimes, sentence him to death and then carry out that sentence — after all, for the most part, they were the people he was perpetrating the crimes against.
ButI’m personally not in favour of the death penalty, but then again whole concept of a democratic Iraq is that they should be allowed to make their own choices, some of which I may not agree with. Not that they asking my opinion in the first place of course. However, I would rather Saddam had not been killed because I believe killing people to be completely and totally wrong — and besides that, there’s the risk of making him seem like a martyr.
However, what I really objected to was not so much the execution, not so much the reactions of the Iraqi people, but the gloating from the media. The butcher is dead, they say. Yes, indeed he is. But if justice has indeed been served, then you would expect the punishment to be seen as something that is necessary, not as something to gloat about.
- Lord Percy
- Em, well, you know, you could be a gloater.
- Lady Farrow
- I beg pardon.
- Lord Percy
- You know, a gloater, eh, come to gloat over the condemned man. I mean we’re up to our ears is gloaters here. “Can I come in for a gloat?” they shout and we shout back “Oh you heartless gloaters”.
The world might indeed have been a better place without him — but if the price for no Saddam Hussein is making other people thirst for blood, and want to see someone killed in front of them I’m not sure the price was worth paying.
Hello. I am 
You’re right, the price wasn’t worth paying.