Madam, - US President George Bush has hailed the execution of Saddam Hussein as an "important milestone" for Iraq. He is right, but not in the sense he intends. The judicial killing of the former dictator is another milestone in Iraq's steady descent into chaos and sectarian civil war.
Saddam Hussein was a tyrant who committed crimes against his own people. But his execution will merely add to the seemingly endless bloodshed and anarchy which has dominated Iraqi life since the US-led invasion in 2003. Executing the former ruler, instead of imprisoning him for life, could well turn a tyrant into an undeserving martyr.
The process which led to the execution underlines that Iraq has a long way to go before establishing the rule of law. The Iraqi court which condemned Saddam Hussein to death was essentially a kangaroo court following a predetermined script. The Iraqi government replaced two of the judges in the course of the trial, ignoring the need to maintain the separation of powers in any democratic state. Moreover, the execution itself was undertaken hastily and its timing kept secret until the last moment - rather like many of the illegal killings authorised by Saddam Hussein himself. The former leader was hanged by men wearing masks to hide their identity, who looked more like furtive paramilitary executioners than the representatives of a legitimate state. The hurried execution was an act of retribution rather than impartial justice.
Saddam Hussein should have been put on trial for his crimes in an international court and made accountable before an impartial panel of international judges. Instead, the execution marks yet another blunder in the catalogue of disasters triggered by the US-led invasion of Iraq. - Yours, etc,
JOHN WALSH, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.
Madam, - The execution of Saddam Hussein was an absolute moral wrong and should be described as such. The putting to death of a human being, no matter what the crime, diminishes us all.
Most of the civilised world accepts that capital punishment is an outmoded and barbaric form of punishment. The video-taping of the execution, the widespread display by the media of the moments before and after his death were voyeuristic and tantamount to public execution, right down to the taunting of the condemned man before his execution.
What message are we sending to the new Iraq when we condone this? Those in Irish public life in a position to be heard must try to send a message of restraint to those in authority in Iraq. - Yours, etc,
Dr MUIREANN BRENNAN, Castlewood Avenue, Dublin 6.
Madam, - I am hardly alone in seeing irony in the hanging of Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK MURRAY, Termon, Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Madam, So that's it, is it - a rope with a broken human being (albeit a vile one) on the end? One small nation has been reduced to rubble and internecine strife by another bigger, but also imperfect one. And all for what? It seems now it may all have been a mistake.
We have to ask again, and again: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"? Who will protect us from the protectors? - Yours, etc,
JEREMY HILL, Rathnure, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.