One is set to hang, and the other has stepped down in the face of massive political opposition. They are two men on opposite sides of the same storm, yet their fates have become intertwined.
The sentencing of Saddam Hussein and the resignation of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are not-so-subtle signs of a large shift in American policy towards the war in Iraq. The old guard has changed. With the departure of two of the most prominent political symbols of the Iraq conflict-the brutal former dictator and the architect of the ill-prepared liberation-the embattled and devastated country can set off on a new course, free from the ghosts of tyranny and the miscalculations of American policy.
Both Saddam Hussein and Donald Rumsfeld thought they knew what was best for Iraq. Though it would be a fallacy to compare the two on the same moral scale, the common results of their leadership were fear, violence, and death for the Iraqi people.
Under Hussein’s rule, thousands of Iraq civilians were detained, tortured, and executed. Entire families ended up in mass graves, and entire villages were subject to extermination, either by Republican Guard death squads or-more insidiously-chemical weapons. No one in Iraq was safe from Saddam’s paranoia and brutality. High-ranking military officers, government officials, and even his family members were all subject to the same fate if a voice of dissent was heard. Fear of his supreme authority permeated every facet of Iraqi society before the 2003 invasion.
Iraqis are still living in a state of constant fear. However now it is not the fear of authority, but of instability and chaos. This new fear is a result of Rumsfeld’s miscalculation of the situation immediately following the invasion. He did not allocate the military resources required to restore order and provide the level of security needed to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure. He ignored his generals’ warnings that a lack of security in Iraq would create the perfect breeding grounds for a deadly insurgency.
That insurgency still runs rampant and the country sits on the verge of a sectarian civil war. Basic civil services are unavailable to the majority of the population. Water, electricity, and even gas are scarce due to unrelenting sabotage by insurgent factions. Suicide bombers hit crowded civilian areas on a daily basis, and thousands of Iraqis have been abducted and executed by free-roaming death squads. The lack of a stable government to maintain control and authority has created the conditions in which violent insurgent factions can operate.
The departure of Rumsfeld and the coming death of Hussein offer glimmers of hope in the bloody storm that has engulfed Iraq. The Bush administration is now looking at a wide array of options and accepting the advice of political opponents regarding a change of policy in Iraq. Concurrently, the death sentence for Hussein will allow Iraqis who have suffered under his regime to close a brutal and horrific chapter of their history.
Breaking with the past will allow both the Iraqi people and the beleaguered U.S. administration to set off on a fresh start, attempt to reconcile their mistakes, and focus on building a sustainable future for Iraq.
