Saddam Hussein's Death Is A Disgrace

We've hanged the bastard. Yay. The world is suddenly a better place, Iraq is magically safe and terrorists will cower and flee.

Or...

We've hanged a deluded old man who was securely locked away and unable to exert any influence. We've denied him the chance - his right - to defend himself and his right to life, no matter how much a prick he was.

It strikes me as so massively hypocritical that a US government and an Australian government that refuse the right to a woman to safely abort a child through safe means such as RU486, saying that human life is sacred even if it's four cells-worth, will happily hang a man and call it a victory for deomcracy.

The Australian government claim it's Iraq's right to hang him (Source) as if Iraqis in general had a say. Foreign Minister Downer also added that it meant he 'will never come back to lead them again.' Is that on the cards? Would he ever have got back in?

The Age also reported that Bush slept while Saddam hanged (Source). Whether it's true or not is immaterial - the casual attitude to knocking someone off that our governments are taking is quite disturbing.

Kevin Rudd, leader of the Australian Labor Party, got it right - it's hypocritical for Australia to support the death penalty as long as it wasn't on our soil. Capital punishment is moronic at best, misguided at worst. We know Saddam did what he did - he was a complete bastard - but killing him is as stupid as smacking a child for hitting another. We won't go in to the long catalogue of posthumous 'oops, he didn't do it after all' moments.

It was Saddam's right to live a natural life, banged up though he may have been. The US were much better off showing him as a pathetic, Doritos-addicted misanthrope than hanging him and making him a martyr. It also does the US no favours to allow a camera crew in to show his last moments. Seeing photos of the former Iraqi leader with a noose around his neck is sickening.

The West keeps presenting itself as a shining light for the rest of the world when in reality we display nothing but contempt for human life if their skin isn't white and their values not identical to our own.