KitNotes

BBC News is reporting that Saddam Hussein is finally dead. The dastardly deed was peformed at 0300 GMT, or 6am local time, before the sun had risen.

Apparently, according to several TV reports I watched over the festive period on CNN and Fox News (the one advantage to staying at my parent’s house is that they have a Sky subscription so I can watch American news - the BBC and Sky News are a poor substitute to the sheer glitz and glam of US cable news), there was to be no video footage released yet it sparked a Ba’athist/loyalist wave of insurgency. It was, and there wasn’t. Indeed, the only bomb blasts Auntie is reporting is one in Bangkok, Thailand.
This could lead you to a couple of conclusions.

First, that Saddam was hated and that no-one will miss him.

Second, that the much-hyped Ba’athist militia either never was, or if it was, isn’t any more. This could be either from sheer exhaustion, giving up in the face of American imperial might, or it could be because they were wiped out by the Islamist militas who also comprise the ‘resistance’ much feted by my former comrades of the SWP and Workers Power.

It’s a terrifiying thought. I’m no lesser-evilist, and hopefully, I never will be, and I think the current evils on offer in Iraq - either the Americans or the Islamists - have me wetting myself in delight. Now with the Ba’athists elements clearly out of the way, it seems that the Iraqi people have either shitty or shittier. I can’t say I’m envious.

I’m going to keep an eye on Riverbend over at Baghdad Burning. Should be interesting reading over the next few weeks.

Also, the BBC report (on Saddam’s execution, that is) says that a punter at the event took a video of the whole thing. The ‘official’ video cuts off just before they open the trapdoor, but the ‘unofficial’ video shows the whole thing. Keep an eye out for it on YouTube, I’m sure it’ll be there sooner, rather than later. Camera phones, eh?

Edit: Channel 4 News has just reported that there was a demonstration in support of the fallen tyrant near his home town of Tikrit. There were 400 people in attendence. A death knell of Ba’athism? I’d like to think so, but there is so much more to go to see a truly liberated Iraq - both of the Islamists and the occupation forces.