Why Saddam Hussein Should Not Be Executed

Call me soft, weak, a woolly liberal, appeaser or whatever! But Saddam Hussein should not be executed!

The Iraqi people may feel that if he is executed, that this will mean he will never be released to haunt them again. But we are not thinking of just the Iraqis, most of whom are intelligent, kind, thinking and caring people, but of the whole world and any other cruel dictator, who may want to oppress a country, a region or even all of us!

Try him under the finest standards of International law in the full glare of publicity, not in some hidden court in a closed Caribbean naval base. We should show him and the whole world the underlying principles of a justice that should be at the heart of all civilisations.

If he is found guilty, then make sure he serves an appropriate sentence in a prison from which he can never escape to be an ogre to anybody again. We should not gloat on his punishment, as this demeans ourselves and most others, who want no truck with violence, oppression and war.

He would then be a constant reminder and example to all those dictators, despots and countries, who kill, maim, abuse and oppress their own people. They would remember him as the bully found as the filthy, shabby, blabbering coward hiding in the hole in the ground at Tikrit, who then suffered a fair and just punishment, but never hurt anybody ever again!

Not as a Martyr!