Psyche, Science, and Society

Execution as snuff film

December 31st, 2006

Josh Marshall makes an interesting comparison between Saddam’s execution and “snuff films” from the other side:

If you watch the video of the moments leading up to Saddam Hussein’s execution, am I wrong that it bears a certain resemblance to the terrorist snuff films we’ve watched out of Iraq over the last three years? A dark, dank room. The executioners wear not uniforms of any sort, either civilian or military, but street clothes and ski masks. We now learn that the executioners were apparently taken from the population of southern Iraq, the country’s Shi’a heartland, where Saddam’s repression was most severe. And in an apt symbolic statement on what the Iraq War is about, two of the executioners who saw Saddam off started hailing Moktada al Sadr in Saddam’s face as they prepared to hang him. Remember, al Sadr’s Mahdi Army is the force the ’surge’ of new US troops is meant to crush next year. That’s where we are.

The Iraqi “government” and its American allies could well shout out the cry of the Spanish fascists: “Long live death!” They have sacrificed perhaps the last chance for many years to bring a whiff of life to their wretched country by refusing to go through with this act of revenge which will spawn all to many future acts of revenge over the coming months and years.

Entry Filed under: Culture, Iraq, Media, Middle East, War and Peace