US now looks for another Saddam Hussein

Therefore, it is quite understandable why Saddam was hanged before he was brought before the Anfal trial.

The responses to Saddam's death ranged across the Middle East: his enemies rejoicing and triumphing on his demise, while his defenders challenging for revenge and calling Saddam a martyr.

While Iranians and Kuwaitis welcomed the death of Saddam who led wars against each of their countries, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the execution prevented exposure of the secrets and crimes the former dictator committed during his brutal rule. His day of execution was chosen on the day of the Feast of the Sacrifice in Islamic calendar (Eid Al Adha).

Why this day was chosen will probably be detailed by historians when documenting the story.

It is quiet clear that during the reconstruction of Iraqi civilian and military facilities, private and government agencies of the US have received billions of dollars in contracts. At present, there are more that 150,000 US army, navy and air force personnel in Iraq while the US is loading millions of dollars of Iraqi oil each day on to US ships. Therefore, maintaining control of Iraq is beneficial to the United States.

While advocating democracy around the world, totalitarianism suits the US more in most of the Muslim states, especially in the Middle East region (barring Israel). The fact of the matter is the United States needs autocratic friends rather than democratic leaders in the Arab World. The majority of people in the Muslim World hate the US. So, obviously if there is a true democracy in any Muslim state the US will lose its control in that state at the government level.

The best example is the parliamentary election in January 2006 in Palestine when the US administration refused to accept the democratically elected Hamas. To forcibly throw out the Hamas government, United States asked its allies, close friends and the European Union to stop giving aid to Palestine.

One must remember that Iraq has always been controlled by Britain and then the US. Iraq remained a British colony until the revolution in 1958. The Iraqi monarchy was a British creation. The Iraqi army was founded with British help in 1931. Iraq's borders were drawn by Britain. Iraq’s natural outlet to the sea, Kuwait, was made an independent country and a British protectorate. The Bush family oil company did a lot of work for and has close ties with Kuwait.

The historians of the West and East may describe Saddam as the Beast of Baghdad who committed obscene atrocities during his 24-year rule. During his rule he attacked Iran and engaged Iraq into eight years of bloody war where, according to reports, more than a million people died. Again, Saddam was fully assisted by the US with military arsenal and economic benefits.

According to a National Security Council staff member, Howard Teicher, during the Iraq-Iran war, Ronald Reagan signed a national security decision directive calling for the US to do whatever was necessary to prevent Iraq's defeat in the Iran-Iraq war.

The Director of Central Intelligence William Casey personally led efforts at that time to ensure that Iraq had sufficient weapons, including cluster bombs, and that the US provided Iraq with financial credits, intelligence, and strategic military advice. The CIA also provided Iraq, through third parties that included Israel and Egypt, with military hardware compatible with its Soviet-origin weaponry.

The United States provided Iraq with satellite intelligence photos and financing for the (Iran-Iraq) war through government guaranteed agricultural credits for food imports through the Atlanta branch of the Bank Nationale di Livorno, which were ultimately diverted to arms acquisition.

Nonetheless, when Saddam Hussein turned his back on the US he was no more use to them and it was necessary for the US to finish him. This was the actual agenda of US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair when invading Iraq - “just to get rid of Saddam Hussein”.

So, the mission is accomplished. As for democracy in Iraq, the people of Iraq may not see it for another 50 years but may be they will see another Saddam Hussein in the coming decades.