Madam, - Congratulations on your excellent Editorial on the execution of Saddam Hussein (January 2nd). It is a valuable exception to the non-stop infotainment masquerading as informed opinion and news.
If only our Government and assembled public "representatives" had the wit, never mind the courage, to express similar, unsparing sentiment. Mind you, they're not the only ones anaesthetised to the horror casually committed last Saturday: apparently, President Bush had to be woken from his sleep, prime minister al-Maliki had a wedding to go to and prime minister "I'm-Against-the Death-Penalty" Blair was busy with the Bee Gees.
Apart from a token bleat, official Ireland has been sepulchral in its silence on the war on Iraq, the ongoing occupation of that country and the kidnapping, torture and disappearances that for millions of Iraqis are now everyday life. We are the less for it.
The self-styled purveyors of democracy would like us to forget that it is not too long since Saddam Hussein was the golden boy of the Middle East. It's an inconvenient truth that Britain and the US gleefully ignored his brutality as long as Baghdad could be a secular beacon in the midst of growing religious fundamentalism in the region. Now, their Pollyanna posturing and choreographed guff about "freedom" and "democracy" are enough to test the gag reflex of anyone who believes in even the barest possibility of either.
And by the way, Patrick Murray (January 3rd) is far from being alone in seeing the irony of Saddam Hussein being hanged for crimes against humanity. When it comes to "justice" and execution, there's a nine-year-old in our house who is having none of it either. - Yours, etc,
MIRIAM O'CALLAGHAN, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Madam, - The various letter-writers in recent days decrying Saddam's execution hate to face up to some simple facts.
Iraq - despite the mayhem caused by a small minority - is a constitutional democracy, whose constitution was ratified by the people in 2005, and whose current democratic government is the result of an election just over a year ago in which no fewer than 12 million Iraqis - an astonishing 74 per cent of the country's adults - voted in the face of daunting intimidation. Would that peaceful Europe or America could boast such a turnout.
Moreover, despite the flaws in Saddam's trial, both the prosecution and defence were able to put forward their cases in the full glare of TV. You would be hard put to find another court process in the Middle East which was as open and fair. By contrast, those who think the much vaunted International Criminal Court should have tried him should reflect that it couldn't even keep Slobodan Milosevic alive for his trial.
The result of Saddam's trial was a conviction and hanging. Who are we to arrogantly proclaim that those millions of brave Iraqi voters are wrong, or that they are not competent or worthy of dealing with their own criminals in accordance with their own constitutional law? - Yours, etc,
TONY ALLWRIGHT, Killiney, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Now that Saddam Hussein is dead, a lot of politicians in the US and Western Europe will rest easier in the knowledge that their support for his despotic regime will go to the grave with him. While no one can doubt the magnitude of his crimes, the court in which he was tried was contrived to ensure that any mention by the defendant of the support of the West for his regime was stifled. Life imprisonment would have been a more suitable sentence but obviously inconvenient for vested interests.
All the rhetoric about spreading democracy in the region sounds hollow when seen in the context of recent events and past history. Only last month Mr Blair stopped a judicial review of a corrupt arms deal to Saudi Arabia at the behest of that undemocratic regime, which threatened to withhold intelligence on al-Qaeda. Augusto Pinochet died without being held accountable for his crimes against humanity. There are countless more examples of such hypocrisy worldwide.
The fact is that while US and Western European leaders harp on about the spread of democracy around the world, most of the worst tyrants of recent times have enjoyed the explicit support of these same governments. It seems that the spread of democracy is fine as long as it is good for business. - Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH, Church Road, Blackrock, Cork.
Madam, - As the situation in Baghdad deteriorates almost daily and Iraq itself seems to disintegrate, there is an increasing number of people who think that what the country needs to keep it together is a strong man in the mould of Saddam Hussein - that, indeed, it was not such a great idea to get rid of him at all. This is flying in the face of the facts.
The history of Saddam is simple and brutal. In 1980 he invaded neighbouring Iran, a war that cost over 1 million lives. When this military adventure failed he exacted revenge on the Iraqi Kurds, whom he accused of supporting Iran, and killed thousands of them in chemical attacks on Kurdish villages.
He then turned his attentions to the south, where he made another unprovoked attack on Kuwait, again resulting in the death or disappearance of thousands. When it looked like he had misjudged the situation and many of the neighbouring countries joined the United States and others to oust him, he ordered the firing of missiles at Israel in an attempt to provoke another war. When forced to leave Kuwait he ordered a "scorched earth" policy which involved the destruction of Kuwaiti oilfields. A catastrophic environmental disaster was only narrowly avoided by a speedy response by American engineers.
He then ruthlessly suppressed an uprising in the south of Iraq and caused irreparable damage to an area inhabited by an ancient civilisation, the Marsh Arabs, in an attempt to wipe them out.
He then concentrated his attentions on the Shia population of Iraq, again killing thousands, as the continued uncovering of mass graves testifies. In addition, during this time he was also an enthusiastic sponsor of international terrorism with his support, both moral and financial, of suicide bombings against civilians in the Occupied Territories.
The situation in Iraq today is appalling and the death toll still mounting, caused in the main by what is left of his supporters in the Ba'ath party, but anyone who considers the situation worse than under Saddam is either suffering from selective amnesia or is delusional. - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN McMAHON, Naas, Co Kildare.
Madam, - I found it profoundly ironic that while one of the most primitive and barbaric forms of execution was being employed to extinguish the life of Saddam Hussein, one of the most sophisticated and at times, pernicious methods of communication - the internet - was being used to convey to all and sundry appalling images of that most despicable event. - Yours, etc,
PAUL DELANEY, Dalkey, Co Dublin.