The Death Penalty: the irony will slap you hard

The big news this week was of Saddam’s final execution and of course the subsequent videos popping out to gratituously broadcast the event to our Instant Society. Normally such West-driven propaganda I ignore like the rest of the West-driven drivel, but this particular one really rackled my chain.

I present to you Charles Tan’s essay on the Singapore Death Penalty, juxtaposed against the wonderfully humanitarian approach the US takes on the very same subject:

http://www.yawningbread.org/guest_2006/guw-126.htm

In it, Charles Tan eloquently regales against the barbarism of executions by hanging (or firing squad or other medieval methods like stoning) and how the United States is to be held up as the paragon of fairness and Justice.

I wonder if Saddam’s execution slaps Charles Tan hard in the face like a salty wet fish on heat, since Saddam’s heavily taunted and globally condemned execution by hanging, was formulated, motivated and finally applauded, by none other than the very nation he puts on a pedestal. Even hard-nosed and unwavering ally, the United Kingdom, eventually falters at the finish line, with lack of support and outright condemnation of the execution.

One could argue that the methods and courts presiding were Iraqi but that would be a weak challenge at best. At worst you’d be branded a simpleton.

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=502

A shift in perception

I read with interest recent MSM reports on the situation in Iraq and in particular how the US Government is shifting its policies in the changing winds. I cite a recent AP article , with choice quotes:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comments, “The security situation is not one to be tolerated, and is not one that is helped by political inaction,” calling for him to bring all the Iraqi factions together to stop the killings in Iraq. She wonders why the US is bankrolling US$300 billion to police intercenine fighting half a world away and that its continuing support for the Maliki government is not a one-sided bargain. She further comments that “Iraq can count on our partnership, as long as the new government continues to make hard decisions necessary to advance a unified, democratic and peaceful Iraq.” Iraq can count on our partnership, as long as the new government continues to make hard decisions necessary to advance a unified, democratic and peaceful Iraq.

The wording and choice of words clearly point towards a rationalisation of a possible exit strategy. Words like “partnership”, “intercenine fighting” expose the US Government’s inclination to create a separation between the US and the Iraqi situation and statements are shaping the US-created situation to a situation that the US is assisting in.

Control of the media is a political strategy the US is late but quickly picking up from the PAP, beginning with the banning of protests in Washington DC. As the US continues to policy itself into quagmire after quagmire (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea) over the past 5 years, the PAP Government continues to follow blindly. While the PAP’s commentary on the NK situation is ambivalent at best, acceeding to to UN votes, it has in the past followed the US like a lapdog, largely due to economic reasons. Perhaps MM Lee’s tribute at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre is the US’s belated reward for his vast teachings in iron-hand governance and manipulating public perception.

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=476