OLD WORD RE-USED We usually try to avoid unpleasant events as much as possible, so when I first heard the sentence accorded Saddam Huisen was to be "hanged by the neck until dead",I more or less, backed away from the entire concept.
I recall thinking: "Certainly that will not be shown on TV!"
I wondered,I will admit,how I could arrange to be busy at something and be unable to see it when it did happen. I realized I was,in the view of some people, being more chicken than they, but I have never wanted to witness an execution. I have known enough of death; seen more than my share, I suppose. The Iranian judge in this particular trial added a codicil which called for punishment to be
history within thirty days or less.
Not being used to such a "let's get on with this" attitude, I was watching TV to learn of any progress being made when it all took
place! I don't know what I expected and the series of quick un-professional pictures washed across the small screen again and again for some time. It is reported to have been the handiwork of one of the guards using a cell phone with picture taking capabilities.
I that initial moment of realizing what I had witnessed, I may well have said aloud:"There we have the raw makings of some the martyr propaganda literature our enemies have been seeking" The view of the condemned man's unmasked face and bodily stance as the trap was sprung has become, by this time, a widely distributed piece of hate literature. We would all have been better off had the film not been made.
I did not meet with much objection the filming until a few days later when "official" (I suppose) photographs - a more general of view of the site became available.
The next two hangings of Saddam's half-brother and an associate proved to be exceptionally; flawed by extreme conditions such as total beheading of the half brother. A newly released photograph showed Saddam's neck had been badly torn, too, in his fall.
The media picked up an old word from Pennsylvania Dutch dialect which I had not heard used for many years. They said the hangings had been "botched". The press, TV,and radio have all been "botching" away ever since.
Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 1-25-07 [c409wds]
