Name: Saddam Hussein
Age: The count was strangulated at 69
Nationality: Iraqi
Claim to fame: A dictator turns into an underserved martyr

If it was the Iraqi government’s attempt to end a dark chapter in their country’s history and pave a way for a new beginning, they failed miserably. If it was the Bush administration’s attempt to add more fuel to the already raging sectarian conflict in Iraq and divide the Muslim world, they succeeded.

The timing and manner of Saddam Hussein’s hanging has infuriated many, even those who had little sympathy for the dictator who ruled Iraq with an iron hand for almost 30 years. His execution on the first day of Eid al-Adha has tarnished the Iraqi government’s image in the Muslim world. And the unruly and undignified manner in which the hanging was carried out has turned him from a man paying the price of ruthlessness towards both his enemies and countrymen into a martyr, courageously facing death. The clandestine video of the hanging showing Saddam taunted by the masked men leading him to death had turned the event into an act of revenge rather than that of justice being carried out.

Those who thought Saddam would be a scared and remorseful man at the end were disappointed. According to news reports, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the national security adviser for Iraq, stood next to Saddam before he mounted the scaffold, and asked him if he felt remorse and fear. “No,” Saddam is quoted saying. “I am a militant and I have no fear for myself. I have spent my life in jihad and fighting aggression. Anyone who takes this route should not be afraid.”

In fact Saddam knew very well that he will be put to death by his captors and he was very concerned about the manner of his death. He had reportedly asked the court to execute him by firing squad, “not by hanging as a common criminal,” if it convicts him of all charges and sentences him to death. “I ask you being an Iraqi person that if you reach a verdict of death, execution, remember that I am a military man and should be killed by firing squad and not by hanging as a common criminal,” Saddam had said.

The government’s decision to rush through the execution and the degrading manner of the hanging has increased the distrust the Iraqi Sunnis had for al-Maliki’s government. Countless people died during the Saddam regime, two wars broke out, but he was tried on the charge of killing 148 Shias in Dujail and executed for it. This fact is enough to keep the Iraqi Sunnis and Shias fighting for a long time, giving the US more reason to stay on to “restore peace” in Iraq and “rebuild” it.

The US has always followed the good old policy of divide and rule, and Iraq has never been more divided – a nation that was reasonably secular under the dictatorship of Saddam. The division of Iraq at the hands of the Bush administration is vital for the annihilation of the old Middle East and the creation of a new one that the West can easily dominate. — Ambreen Arshad