The White House portrays the impending execution of Saddam Hussein as a milestone in Iraq's transition to a democracy, which speaks volumes for Washington's understanding of both justice and democracy.
Iraq's quisling Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki justifies his killing on the specious grounds that it might reduce the current level of violence in Iraq.
And his British counterpart is as dishonest as ever, acknowledging that "we are against the death penalty, whether it's Saddam or anybody else," while reminding us of the barbaric brutality of Saddam's regime and claiming that it is the Iraqis themselves who will take the decision.
While the brutality of the Saddam dictatorship is not in doubt, it is far from clear that a nation under occupation is calling the shots over the justice system.
If the Iraqi government wielded sovereignty over the country, would the US perpetrators of the massacre of 24 civilians at Haditha be subject only to the legal processes of the occupier?
It is abundantly clear that the legal charade that has been played out in Baghdad's Green Zone may well have had Iraqi actors, but the script, direction and choreography were all made in Washington.
The former Iraqi dictator's trial has been a legal farce with two intended goals.
The first is to enthuse Iraq's Shi'ite and Kurdish communities by putting to death the face of the Ba'athist regime that oppressed their communities and murdered tens of thousands of their people.
The second is, quite literally, to silence Saddam Hussein so that he is never able to blow the gaffe on US collaboration with his regime.
It is noteworthy that, of all Saddam's crimes, he has had to face neither the unprovoked invasion of Iran nor the widespread use of mustard gas and other weapons of mass destruction.
Had he been, his lawyers could have demanded full disclosure of US collaboration during the Iraq-Iran war and could have sought to summon Donald Rumsfeld to answer questions about his role as a representative of then US president Ronald Reagan in Baghdad at that time.
The rope around Saddam's neck will be a lifeline to those in the US and elsewhere who backed his dictatorship for years before developing amnesia in later years.
While many Iraqi families who lost loved ones to Saddam's repressive state apparatus welcome the prospect of their tormentor being hanged, they must know that the death of one man, no matter how brutal, will do nothing to bring back their relatives.
Nor will it help to bring Iraq's various national and religious communities together to build a united, federal, democratic state.
What stands in the way of such a goal is the ongoing imperialist occupation of their country, which was undertaken in order to destroy Iraqi independence and ensure Baghdad's loyalty to Washington.
Executing Saddam will transform him, in the eyes of some, into a martyr for Iraqi independence, which he does not deserve.
His trial and an in-depth inquiry into the crimes and international backing of his regime should be the business of a truly sovereign Iraq.
