Do I really want to see footage of a guy having a noose put around neck?
Simon Cawkwell - Sat, 30 Dec 06 :
Holger1,
You may not want to see Saddam being hung. But, given the decision to top him in terms of Iraqi law, there is a reason for Britons to be relatively grateful. For as long as he was alive he acted as a rallying point even if only in emotional terms for one set of crackpots. His death stops that.
Had his death not been properly recorded there would always have been the residual thought that he might have been still alive.
If you doubt the wisdom of that assertion, consider Hugh Trevor-Roper's book on the final days of Hitler. HMG commissioned this within days of the end of WWII. This was not because HMG wished to spend money on an enquiry. It wished to lay a ghost.
You may not like looking at Saddam's final moments. But how would it be authoritatively established without being freely broadcast?
