Today on Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol said that Saddam Huissein’s execution “could be a milestone on the way towards a more decent and democratic regime in Iraq.”
On NBC, reporter Richard Engle, who is actually in Iraq, provided a reality check. Engle noted that supporters of Hussein “are not the overwhelming majority of people in this country carrying out attacks against american soldiers or against iraqis themselves.” Moreover, because the execution was “tinged by…sectarian overtones” it could “fuel” the “civil war.” Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/12/engle.320.240.flv]
Transcript:
RUSSERT: There have been 75 deaths in the Baghdad area since the death of Saddam Hussein. What impact do you believe his execution will have short term, long term on the security situation in Iraq?
ENGLE: Frankly, tim, I don’t think that it will have a tremendous impact. The Baath Party supporters, the people behind Saddam Hussein are not the overwhelming majority of people in this country carrying out attacks against American soldiers or against Iraqis themselves. Now it is mostly still Sunnis, but more Sunnis with a fundamentalist, more people motivated by al Qaeda than to bring back Saddam Hussein. What could happen is the more sectarian concerns. The fact that this video and the execution itself were tinged by such sectarian overtones, that could fuel the much more greater problem in this country which is the civil war.