Its not about whether Saddam funded terrorism, because there’s no evidence to say he did, the United States clearly had an agenda in Iraq from the very beginning. And this wasn’t anything to do with terrorism, or the removal of Saddam, simply because he was an ‘evil dictator’. The USA has historically funded terrorism, and has more links with Al Qaeda than Iraq ever did, as for Bin Laden, the States funded and educated him while he was fighting a guerrilla war against the soviets in Afghanistan in the 80’s. The United States also gave Saddam the chemical weapons he used to gas the Kurds. I think that Saddam was executed because of the evidence of US sponsored terrorism he was privy too, as well as being a focus for the insurgency.

However, in this case, as in many, US foreign policy is obviously short sighted, by executing Saddam, they make him a martyr, it is also obvious that he didn’t have a fair trial, the results were expected from the beginning, and the responsibility for his execution cannot be realistically attributed to the Iraqi people, the country is still occupied by the US and UK, and for that reason, his blood is on our hands, which channels more anger at the west. Bush has, through direct and indirect effects of the war killed between 52000 and 58000 people (iraqbodycount.org) while Saddam, during his rule killed significantly less.

An attack on civil rights has also been an aim of the “war on terror” on both sides of the Atlantic, although specifically in the US, the Patriot Act and Guantanamo bay spring to mind. The latter, is a fairly crass assault on the Geneva convention, with torture and imprisonment for indefinite periods of time without trial. It seems blatantly hypocritical that the Bush administration claims they wanted to free the Iraqi people from a dictator that was doing exactly the same things they are. The only difference is that the US is doing them on an international scale, and setting a precedent for the further abuse of human rights across the globe. The establishment of secret concentration camps and the erosion of basic civil rights at home to “combat terrorism” reminds me of another regime in history, one who the United States once fought against, with a leader I think Bush has something in common with. Nazi Germany.

So one question remains, if Bush has eroded your rights at home, abused human rights all over the world, and waged the bloodiest war since Vietnam, who will execute him when the dust settles? Saddam’s execution is, and will always remain a conquers justice.