Skip to content

Galway Independent

Home arrow Sections arrow Letters arrow Justice dangling at the end of a rope
Justice dangling at the end of a rope E-mail
Written by Administrator   
Wednesday, 03 January 2007
Dear Editor,

Such was the delight of the US administration upon hearing that Saddam had been hanged that one could almost visualise these wonderful upholders of democracy and freedom dancing in a big circle around the White House and singing: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.

They can well celebrate and rejoice...because it is safe and politically correct for them to applaud. The Wicked Witch of the East had ceased to be a friend of America since he invaded oil-rich Kuwait and imperilled US interests in the region.

Before that, even when Saddam was slaughtering Iranians and gassing Kurds, he was firmly on the side of the Stars and Stripes.

So the administration that authorised an illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, and that has been responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi deaths, can afford to crow about the televised killing of a former friend and ally who refused to play ball for them anymore. Sure, wasn't hanging too good for that dreadful man, they tell us.

It was, of course, a different matter a few weeks ago when another tyrant died peacefully in his bed. General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator who murdered thousands of his own fellow citizens, was America's trusted friend.

In the early 1970s, he and his fellow fascists overthrew the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile, with enthusiastic US backing via the CIA. Pinochet replaced a democratically mandated government with a cruel un-elected dictatorship, trampled all over human rights, and the Americans not only failed to check his tyranny: the US openly backed his vicious regime from day one because it was anti-communist. And British PM, Margaret Thatcher, famously had tea with him.

 So it seems that being a power-hungry murderous dictator is okay in the eyes of the freedom loving USA as long as you don't start messing around with 'vital US interests'.

And that, one presumes, was why President Bush and his allies in the great 'War on Terror' hadn't a word to say when the Wicked Witch of the West quietly passed away.

Pinochet received a fully-fledged military funeral, if not an official State one. And not a whimper out of the good old US of A, without which the man would never have been able to seize power and commit his numerous bloody crimes against humanity.

The hanging of Saddam Hussein, after his conviction by a Kangaroo Court, was a victory for hypocrisy and political double standards. Still, I'm glad that his execution was televised. If it helps to galvanise support worldwide for a ban on the death penalty, then perhaps Saddam may not have died in vain.

In the meantime, all those dictators and criminal regimes assisting the US in its great crusade for freedom and democracy should take heed. They can kill and torture to their heart's content on their home patch so long as they remain loyal to America.

They should bear in mind what one US politician said of Pinochet at the height of the dictator's reign of terror: 'He may be a son of a bitch...but he's our son of a bitch'.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. A New Year beckons, and justice, compromised and perverted, is dangling at the end of a rope.

Thanking you,

John Fitzgerald.


Comments (0) »		 feed
Show/Hide comment formtoggle


Write the displayed characters


busy
 
User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 
< Prev
[ Back ]


Custom Search
Visit our Games and puzzles section
How will you vote in Lisbon 2?
 
Find your ideal job in Galway using our Galway Jobs listings.