1
Yesterday I saw Saddam’s execution video taped by a cell phone camera. It is quite strange since up to the last second, Saddam seems to be the same dictator he was for decades. Unlike Al-rabee’s account of the execution, Saddams didn’t seem to be broken. He is ferocious up to the end; probably he was playing his last act to immortalize his image as a proud dictator! I am sure that is what lots of Arabs wanted too. But it didn’t really mattered since in less than a second the trap door opened up and the dictator is gone. The guy with cell phone camera takes some shots from Saddam’s body hanging to make sure that he is dead…
2
Some historians have pointed the assassination of Naser-aldin Shah (eighteenth century Persian king) as the beginning of the authority crisis in Iran; since for the first time in Iran’s history a common man sets the destiny of a king. Saddam’s hanged body reminded me of Naser-aldin Shah! The Middle East has seen lots of assassinations and executions in twentieth century, but nothing like Saddams execution. At the most, a dictator is executed in order for another dictator to replace him. But this time, the scenario is quite different; neither was Saddam executed by another dictator nor he was replaced by one.
3
I think Saddam’s overthrow, which was “confirmed” by his execution, marks the end of an era: the era of secular dictators in the Middle East. I call this era “the middle order” as oppose to the old order (“old regime”) and new order.
Now, “sectarian violence” is the most frequent term used to describe Iraq. I think it can spread to other Arab nations soon. Of course, not because of Sheea revival! but because of the lack of “the middle order”. In Iraq the strong man is gone and in other Arab countries the legitimacy of the strong men is scattered.
I don’t know what is going to happen in the Arab world, but “sectarian violence” doesn’t seem to be a far away state. I am positive that the “middle order” is gone; I hope the new order comes soon!
