An Irregular Lynching!

So, the United States and its puppet government in Iraq engaged in a PR stunt that didn’t exactly turn out like the Milestone it was supposed to be. Well, call me shocked! I say this because all of the other Iraqi Milestones, Turning Points, etc., in Iraq have turned out so well, haven’t they? But this PR stunt goes well beyond all of the others as far as I am concerned.

An occupying entity, which controls a puppet government, elects to put to death the former head of the country that is being occupied. And the puppet government totally mishandles the PR stunt.

I am not going to link to the video tape. I know that you all know where to find it. I am going to say that it is ironic that just as Saddam’s poll numbers were improving he is lynched by a rabble, just like back in the day.

And as this article in the WAPO makes clear, the Iraqi government is more interested in who leaked the truth than they are about the truth of the lynching.

Just a snip it but read the whole thing:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The prime minister on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the conduct of Saddam Hussein's execution in a bid to learn who among the witnesses taunted the former Iraqi leader in the last minutes of his life, then leaked a cell phone video.

The video contained audio of some witnesses taunting Saddam with chants of "Muqtada" and of the former leader responding that his tormentors were being unmanly. It surfaced on Al-Jazeera television and the Internet late Saturday, the day Saddam was hanged.

The taunts referred to Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric who is a main backer of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Shiite leader who pushed for a quick execution of Saddam.

Al-Jazeera said when it broadcast the video that it was exclusive to them. The pictures appeared on the Web at about the same time.

Sami al-Askar, a close al-Maliki political adviser, told The Associated Press that the Iraqi leader had "ordered the formation of an investigative committee in the Interior Ministry to identify who chanted slogans inside the execution chamber and who filmed the execution and sent it to the media."

The video was particularly inflammatory not only because the disrespectful chanting was clearly audible, but also because it showed Saddam's death as he dropped through the gallows floor and then swung by his neck, his eyes open and neck twisted dramatically to his right.

The clandestine video portrayed a much different scene than the official tape of the execution, which was muted. It did not show Saddam dropping to his death.

Munqith al-Faroon, an Iraqi prosecutor whose job was to convict Saddam Hussein of genocide, was one of the small group of witnesses at the hanging and defended Saddam's right to die in peace.

He said he knew that "two top officials ... had their mobile phones with them" at the execution, although other witnesses had their phones taken away beforehand.

Saddam's execution and the way it was conducted have provoked anger among Sunni Muslims, who have taken to the streets in recent days in mainly peaceful demonstrations in Sunni enclaves across the country.

Okay, so maybe it is only just another War Crime in the checklist that won't be prosecuted, but it is an enormous scar on the American Psyche and U.S. Credibility in the World! So, perhaps if this particular lynching had been more dignified, and underreported, there wouldn’t be the need for an investigation of who leaked the moment of truth?

What have we become?