Writing in the Mirror author Christopher Hitchens criticises the execution of Saddam arguing: what we have seen instead is something more like an exorcism, or blood-rite. It is difficult, in fact impossible, to convey to non-Iraqis how deep and terrible was Saddams regime of fear. People could be executed horribly if they upset a cup of coffee on a newspaper that carried his photograph.
Relatives were not just forced to watch the torture and murder of their loved ones, but were compelled to applaud as well. A quarter of a century of terror and humiliation is not easily cancelled.
As with Dracula, fearful people want the assurance of the stake through the heart.
They cannot rest until they know the ghastly tyrant is dead. As a result, the chance of a landmark human rights tribunal has been missed and a botched, hasty and panicky process substituted, which means the exorcism hasn’t quite succeeded – and the spirit still walks and stalks.