Times of India , India
Bush's Nightmare May Be Only Just Beginning

“After Saddam's execution, the U.S. is bracing for blowback that could last days, months or even decades.”


By Chidanand Rajghatta

December 31, 2006
India - Times of India - Original Article (English)    



Iraqis grieving beside the grave of Saddam Hussein
in Ouja, 80 miles north of Baghdad, Dec. 31.

—AMATEUR VIDEO: Saddam's execution
via cell phone, Dec. 29, 00:02:36WindowsVideo


RealVideo[NEWSWIRE PHOTOS: Saddam Hussein].

—BBC VIDEO NEWS: Saddmam buried near
hometown of Tikrit, Dec. 30, 00:03:28WindowsVideo


Members of the Socialist Unity Center of India
[communist] protest Saddam Hussein's haning
in Bangalore, Dec. 30. Many on the India sub-
continent and the Arab world see White House
manipulation behind the gruesome execution.



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WASHINGTON: In an ironic moment near his ranch in Crawford, Texas on Friday, President Bush was hustled toward an armored car which had been pressed into service as a tornado shelter, even as Saddam Hussein was being readied for the gallows in distant Baghdad.

The tornado threat passed in about 10 minutes, enabling the President to resume his working vacation. But after Saddam’s execution, the U.S. is bracing for blowback that could last much longer - perhaps days, months or even decades.

Curiously, while Saddam's capture three years ago occasioned much celebration in Washington, his abrupt execution elicited an almost calm indifference. At his ranch on Friday night, Bush went to bed shortly before the hanging in Baghdad (where it was Saturday at dawn) and reports said he was not woken up to hear the news of the execution.

In a statement issued soon after the execution, Bush said, "Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq," while describing the development as "an important milestone on Iraq’s course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror."

While critics continued to question the process that sent Saddam to the gallows, Bush, who believes unreservedly in the death penalty, insisted that Saddam was executed only after a fair trial - "the kind of justice he denied victims of his brutal regime."

"Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule. It is a testament to the Iraqi people’s resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial," Bush said.

In spite of having backed many brutal dictators including Saddam himself at one point, the U.S. is putting its own spin on what some analysts regard as the settling of personal scores by the Bush White House.