January 17, 2007
by Sean M. Madden

Hussein Hanged, Bush and Blair Remain in Power

East Sussex, UK - Saddam Hussein was hanged for executing 148 people. Yet, even by conservative estimates, George W. Bush and Tony Blair are responsible for hundreds, or thousands, of times more deaths due to their war of aggression - the supreme international crime - in Iraq.

But, while Saddam Hussein is hanged, Bush and Blair remain in power with apparent impunity.

Why the double standard?

Recently I listened to BBC Radio 4's call-in program, Any Answers?, hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby. The first caller did what the 'free press' - in both the UK and the US - have failed to do. She pinpointed the obvious yet unmentionable hypocrisy hovering over last week's hanging of Saddam Hussein:

I find I get so angry when I hear expressions of disgust of the way Saddam Hussein was hanged or the procedure. What about the over 400,000 people who have been killed in Iraq, innocent people who didn't do anything, who died by the invasion of their country by America and Britain? George Bush did not declare war on Iraq. So this is not a genuine war in which civilians are accidentally killed. This was an invasion of their country, illegally. George Bush declared war on terror. There had been no terrorist threat from Saddam Hussein, from Iraq, either to America or to Britain. And, yet, it was invaded. [.] My goodness, compared to the 400,000 people - and the country it has devastated - and for no reason whatsoever. Why aren't they accountable? Why isn't George Bush being made accountable? If Saddam Hussein has been made accountable for anyone whom he killed, then look at the enormous . [caller was, here, cut off by the BBC host].

The next caller seconded the unmentionable:

I'm really following-up the same point as your previous caller. I hold no brief, whatsoever, for Saddam Hussein. He committed terrible atrocities during his reign. But, he was actually convicted and found guilty of a crime against humanity, condemned to death, and hanged on the narrow charge that he authorized the murder of 200 [148] civilians in a village in northern Iraq. Now compare that, as your previous caller said, with the many thousands, mostly civilians - women and children - who were killed by the American bombing of Baghdad and so forth which was authorized by President George W. Bush in his capacity as the commander-in-chief of the United States forces.

The power of simple, common sense truths.

This simple truth - the disparity between Hussein's being hanged for his crime against humanity of ordering 148 executions versus Bush and Blair's apparent impunity in committing the supreme international crime of ordering a war of aggression against a sovereign nation and killing tens, or hundreds, of thousands of people in the process - must be carried forth, told and retold, by all who would demand an end to the war in Iraq, the prosecution of all war criminals, and an end to US and UK imperial misadventures.

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Sean M. Madden [send him email] is a UK-based American who guides himself and others in mindful living, meditation and writing. He blogs at Mindful Living Guide and iNoodle.com.

© copyright 2007 by Sean M. Madden