New York Times calls for deferring Saddam's execution
Nov 06 8:13 AM US/Eastern
The New York Times called for the deferment of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's execution, saying Iraq had not received "full justice."
The newspaper, which is opposed to the death penalty, said Iraq not only needed to hold Saddam fully accountable for his atrocities but also to heal and educate the nation he "ruthlessly divided."
The toppled Iraqi leader was sentenced Sunday to die by hanging for ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite residents of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a 1982 assassination attempt.
"But Iraq got neither the full justice nor the full fairness it deserved," it said in an editorial.
"President Bush overreached in calling the trial 'a milestone in the Iraqi peoples efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.'"
The paper expressed regret that dominant Shiite and Kurdish politicians "have been determined to use Mr. Hussein's trial and punishment to further their own political ends, as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has continued to do in recent days."
The editorial called for deferring the death penalty "long enough to allow the completion of a second trial, in which Mr. Hussein is charged with ordering genocidal massacres against the Kurds."
The Wall Street Journal meanwhile said the the verdict was "one admirable legacy of the American sacrifice in Iraq."
"But to make it permanent, the US must also defeat the insurgency that battles on in Saddam's name," it said in an editorial.
"No matter what happens in Tuesday's election (in the United States), the US commander in chief who ended Saddam's tyranny has to find a strategy and generals who will finish the job."
In the view of The Washington Post, the trial, while imperfect, will help advance Iraq's democracy.
"In the short term, Saddam Hussein's conviction and eventual execution may worsen Iraq's civil conflict," The Post said.
"His trials nevertheless may come to be seen as milestones in the slow and painful attempt to construct a more civilized Iraq from the poisonous wreckage of his regime."
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