The news of hanging Saddam Hussein who insisted till the endthat he isthe President of Iraq - and forright reasons, for he
was not unseatedby the people of Iraq - does not come assurprise. What it shows is thatit is not a mere spectre asMarx was wont to say, but naked, hideousAmerican Imperialism that is hauntingthe
developing world.Right fromearly 1990s when Saddam took on the brutal US might he went intoworldhistory as a rare daring ruler who lived for a cause whether we likeditor not. He might have committed heinous crimes in Iraq.It was for thepeople of Iraqto judge him and take on him. That he was hanged by thelackeys of Americanimperialism that too Muslims in a Muslim country,will continue to remain ablot on human history and the history of theliberation of the Arab
countries,and exacerbate the ongoing civil warin Iraq.Just imagine the reaction of people in different parts of theworld if GeorgeBush were to be tried by the head of a Muslim country,and hanged for crimesagainst humanity. As I have maintained repeatedlybetween Saddam Hussein andGeorge Bush the latter is a greater danger,greater evil, and greater criminal,and I would have loved to see himdrop dead for war crimes which areincomparably higher than the real orperceived crimes of Saddam. So what doesAmerican democracy teachus?That in a distant land like India - a poor man from Kerala whoservedas Saddam's cook - and on return to home land named his shopafterSaddam - on hearing the news of Saddam's execution wept before TVcamerasshowing the mementos from Saddam which he still cherishes, andseveral similarstories showing Saddam in a different light prompt oneto conclude, if I may sayso - that the devil was not as dark as he waspainted by the Bushes, Blairs,and their hacks.So any report emanatingfrom the developed (??)countries against rulers of developing countriesshould be taken with a lot ofcaution. All said, developing countries donot have the kind of Goebbelsianpropaganda machinery which developedcountries have. And lies churned outrepeatedly, systematically, andwith unfailing regularity by the propagandamills have a way of invadinghuman minds as bizarre truth.Though Indiain its characteristic stylemade some protest murmurs they had a touch ofhypocrisy, and they lackedconviction and force. In fact, the Indian State did not condemnSaddam'shanging and its message was highly circumscribed. It was onlythe Left partieswhich protested vociferously, and it was only the tinyState Kerala which wenton a state-backed hartal.Fromthe wayUSimperialism has been running amuck, often using poodles like TonyBlair, wehave to learn a lot about what a so-called developed democracyshould not be. Iaddress this to American citizens in particular, whoshould have preventedGeorge Bush from his perilous and perniciouseccentricities. That till the end Saddam remained defiant, and in hisfinalact of defiance refused to don the customary hood offered by thehangman,itself is a telltale of his anger and anguish against theinvaders of Iraqand their duplicity and double-speak. While Saddam hasalready got into historybooks as a martyr and the builder of modernIraq as he rightlyclaimed even before the noose tightened and even ashe said "Plague on theWest, plague on US, plague on Bush", or somecurse to that effect, GeorgeBush might get, if at all, a footnote thattoo only for his villainy.Oneis not sure if nemesis will not catch upwith him as it tried to catch up withhis father, in which case he mightend up as a captive with hardly any sympathyfrom the developing world.In either case Americans should seriously reconsiderthe kind ofdemocracy they are practising, allowing their elected leadersdestroycountry after country in the name of human rights, peace, democracy,andwhat have you, and remaining mute witnesses to victims being turnedintocriminals by the criminals and their propaganda mills and gettingpunished byKangaroo courts with utter impuy to establishedinternational politicalnorms and ethics.