Iraq’s Sovereignty?

When Iraq’s prime minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki “decided to go ahead with the hanging (of Saddam Hussein) the Americans said they made no further attempts to stop it, having concluded that they could advise the Iraqis against the execution, but not prevent it if the Iraqis persisted, out of respect for Iraqi sovereignty” (my italics, New York Times, January 3, 2007).

Given that Washington’s respect for Iraqi sovereignty hasn’t prevented an invasion, occupation and installation of a puppet government, it seems curious that respect for Iraqi sovereignty should suddenly stay Washington’s hand.

Libya plans to erect a statue depicting Saddam Hussein in the gallows, along with a monument to Omar Mukhtar, the religious teacher who led a two decades-long resistance to Italian colonialism early in the last century. Mukhtar was the subject of the Moustapha Akkad film, Lion of the Desert, with Anthony Quinn in the role of the resistance leader. Like Hussein, Mukthar was hanged for being on the wrong side of an imperialist power bent on outraging another nation’s sovereignty.