Saddam’s Death Mirrors That of Ceausescu

The execution of Saddam Hussein on December 30 brought to mind the execution 17 years ago of Romania’s own dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, on Christmas Day.
Their peoples somehow arrived to getting a similar form of justice, with having them executed at the end of December, though almost two decades apart.

Both Saddam’s and Ceausescu’s execution days overlapped with important religious days in their countries’ religions.
And the similarity of the fate the two dictators had does not stop here.
They both led for decades their respective nations, basing their regime on terror, depleting their countries of resources to benefit a few.
They both were personally guilty of crimes against their peoples.
They were good friends and politically compatible.

Ceausescu took part in the repression of the Romanian population during the Stalinist years and bares full political responsibility for the time he ruled Romania, between 1964 and 1989.
In both Hussein’s and Ceausescu’s cases they took upon themselves the identity of assassins, so it was only fair for them to meet the fate of assassins.

The endless talk in international media on the issue of human rights applied to ruthless dictators like Hussein and Ceausescu were is pointless.
What other punishment would have been appropriate for them?
One year suspended prison time for all their crimes?

Had any of their millions of victims access to a fair trial?

When Ceausescu was executed, the soldiers pulling the trigger shouted they revenged the deaths of the people dying in Timisoara and Bucharest.
When Hussein was hung to death the families which had their members fallen victims of his regime called the name of Mohammad Bakr al-Sadr, the Shiite religious leader killed in 1980 on personal orders from Hussein.

This does not mean that I agree or that anyone should with the Shiite extremism in Iraq, of the civil war tearing apart now the Shiites and Sunnis in a conflict with roots over 1,000 year old, which clamed millions of lives.

Dictators, however they are, have one fate only: the death sentence. Sometimes history requires one last crime to end all crimes in genocide.