Mixed reactions to Saddam verdict

The Bush regime have been anxious to portray the decision to hang Saddam as an Iraqi one whilst applauding the decision as a landmark in Iraq's efforts "to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law". However, it's such a staggeringly dumb decision that it has Bush's fingerprints all over it.

The small hint at how stupid this is comes with the news that the time and place of the hanging will be kept secret till afterwards "to avoid civil unrest". Therein lies the truth of what a divisive decision this really is.

It would have been far better to send the old tyrant to the Hague where he would have rotted in obscurity, rather than turn him into a martyr which is what the Bushites seem intent on doing. Oh, I know I'm being unfair. It was an Iraqi trial and they were in charge of the proceedings. If you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you.

But a number of groups have complained about the legality of the proceedings, including US-based Human Rights Watch, which said the Iraqi government had undermined the credibility of the trial.

India meanwhile has urged clemency - expressing concern over any delay to the restoration of peace in Iraq, while the EU has called on Iraq not to carry out the death sentence.

Appeals Court judge Arif Shaheen told a news conference in Baghdad the execution date could not "exceed 30 days".

"As from [Wednesday] the sentence could be carried out at any time," he said, adding that there could be no further appeal and the sentence could not be commuted.

Saddam Hussein's defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said the court's verdict "was expected".

"We were not at all surprised, as we are convinced that this has been - 100% - a political trial," he said.

The trial was not only political, it was a joke with judges being replaced if they were deemed too supportive of Saddam. It really says something about the way the Bush regime have bungled Iraq since they stormed in that they couldn't find Saddam Hussein guilty in a fair manner. If there's a greater example of incompetence than that, then I've yet to see it.

So Bush The Vengeful will get what he wants, which is Saddam's head on a plate. But, rather than being the unifying act that Bush originally intended it to be, it will only add to the divisions in this already bitterly divided country.

When one looks at the lofty pretensions that preceded this invasion - with it's talk of democracy and a domino effect that would ripple out across the entire Middle East - and one looks at the reality of where we find ourselves three years later, with Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories all flirting with the idea of civil war, one gets a glimpse at how catastrophic Bush's intervention into a region he neither understood nor cared about really was.

As always Bush will pretend that this is a decision made for Iraqis by Iraqis. As always he will ignore the myriad of people asking him to reconsider; the EU, India, the human rights groups.

And he will continue to ignore Blair, Saudi Arabia, Condi Rice, Colin Powell and others who are urging him to use his remaining time in office to see the establishment of a viable state of Palestine.

The hanging of Saddam will come to signify the Bush presidency perfectly. It's an act of stupidity, it's an act of vengeance, and - in terms of the real problems facing the region - it is an act that is ultimately utterly irrelevant.

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