Eid is not a good time for goats ... or scapegoats?

We woke on Eid morning to hear that Saddam Hussein had been executed in Iraq. I watched the video before going to read prayers at Baker Street mosque and was genuinely moved by his bravery. I doubt I would have remained as calm as he had in the circumstances but I suppose he has had a while to come to terms with his impending death. I suspect that Saddam was aware that just as he had killed his forerunners, then he too would meet his fate in a similar way.

The official video of course has now been superseded by the mobile phone footage .. which though horrifying, I was glad to have seen. If it had not been for that footage, the reality of the event would not have come out. The manner of his execution shows that Iraq is not the liberated budding democracy that the US wants it to be. The haste in which he was taken to his execution was distasteful as well to say the least. I realise that it was in an effort to get him out of the way before dawn of Eid but it can only be with a sense of irony that it was in fact Bukra Eid ... when goats are sacrificed based on the biblical story of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) who took his son to be sacrificed on the word of God only for his son to be replaced by an animal at the point of sacrifice. Perhaps this is where the phrase scapegoat emanates .. though I have heard tales of a spanish town, with a high tower and goats being thrown. Who knows? Perhaps in years to come people will refer to Saddam instead. Was he merely a scapegoat? Certainly they never found any weapons of mass destruction and it was on those grounds that Iraq was invaded .. sorry liberated ... Despite his tendency of violence towards some sections of his countrymen, which although never openly condoned was certainly not condemned by the rest of the world, he did bring about improvements to Iraq. Few know that Iraq was actually given a United Nations award for it's high female literacy rates, an amazing 80% in 1987. Female liberation doesn't quite fit with the picture we have of Saddam does it .. which is why it is hardly ever mentioned in the media.

In fact it seems the absolute opposite is reported ... Mrs. Bush's Remarks to UNESCO Plenary Session in Paris "The presence of a peaceful, stable Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a powerful beacon for freedom, an example of hope in that vital region. A recent Gallup survey found that nearly two-thirds of Iraqis say ousting Saddam Hussein was worth the hardship they've experienced; an overwhelming majority feels that Iraq will be better off in five years than it was before. Nowhere is this more obvious than in education. One tragic legacy of Saddam Hussein's rule is an overall adult illiteracy rate of 61 percent -- and a staggering 77 percent -- or three in four women in Iraq -- cannot read."

Perhaps it is Mrs Bush that has difficulty reading. A timeline of Iraq's history quite clearly shows that the decline in Iraq began after the first UN sanctions were imposed. But then again perhaps it is I who am unable to read between the lines or to ask why parents would rather that their children remain at home than battle through a civil war to try to get to school. Learn or live. When the choice is this brutal I know what I would choose.