Race to the gallows: Behind the shabby trial and execution of Saddam Hussein

[Say_What]

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Race to the gallows: Behind the shabby trial and execution of Saddam Hussein

If there is one thing one would have thought the United States and its local allies in Iraq could get right it would be dealing with Saddam Hussein. The copious evidence documenting the dictator's crimes against humanity, including mass murder and the waging of wars of aggression against Iran and Kuwait , provided an ideal opportunity for an exemplary exercise in the rule of law. Instead, like everything else involving the U.S. misadventure in Iraq , the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein was a botched, shabby, affair that is more likely to generate violence and division than to serve as a shining example of justice.

What went wrong with Saddam's case is a microcosm of what is wrong with the American intervention in Iraq . The same unilateralism and contempt for international law and world opinion that led the Bush administration to defy the UN Security Council and wage an illegal war also set the stage for the debacle that the Saddam trial became. It was what motivated the rejection of an international tribunal as the proper venue for trying a former head of state accused of crimes of historical proportions and international dimensions. Instead, in order to maintain absolute control and to be able to impose the death penalty, which would have been precluded in a trail involving an international court, the United States and its Iraqi allies engineered the creation of an Iraqi tribunal to try the former dictator.

The credibility of such a court, organized under occupation by a government with dubious legitimacy, a government which itself is the product of an unlawful war, is limited at best. The conduct of the trial and the climate surrounding it, marked as it was by the murder of defense attorneys, the replacement of judges, and an atmosphere that at times seemed on the verge of descending into chaos and farce, decreased the credibility of the proceedings even further.

Moreover, the charges that ultimately led to the conviction and execution of Saddam involved crimes that pale in comparison to the former Iraqi ruler's many truly heinous acts. As a result, there will be no opportunity for justice and closure regarding the gassing of the Kurds, the aggression against Iran that resulted in more than a million deaths, the invasion of Kuwait , or many other crimes much worse than those of which Saddam was found guilty.

This makes clear that justice was never the main point; the point was to get rid of Saddam--quickly and without having to acknowledge the complicity of past U.S. administrations with the Saddam regime at the time it was committing its worse atrocities.

http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Max_Castro&otherweek=1167890400

[imax2268]

1. Exactly...

the Bush administration and others wanted him dead before he got the chance to squeal about Bush Sr., Rummy, and Cheney all kissing Saddam's ass and giving him everything he needed.

[tularetom]

2. An international tribunal may have asked some embarrassing questions

about the involvement (or complicity) of St Ronnie, poopy bush, and Rummy in some of Hussein's more odious activities. In fact I think some effort should be made to try him post mortem for the Kurd gassing and other atrocities that took place during the Iran Iraq war in order to bring out some of these facts.

[Say_What]

3. I believe his lawyers swore they would do just that... at least so I read

and the editorials from around the planet, except the USSA's MSM, all wrote about it over the weekend.

[Briar]

4. For some reason

many Americans who call themselves liberal have bought the administration excuse that the US was not responsible for this execution and were rushed into it. I've given up debating it with some of them (one just gets called anti American). I find their refusal to see the obvious absolutely baffling. Saddam was in US custody up to the point where he was handed over to the executioners. Everyone there was brought in by the US and searched by the US. The US flew the body to its final resting place. The US benefits from the silencing of this most damaging of witnesses and from the provision of a spurious "victory" over the "bad man" for whom Bush was gunning. We have motive, means, opportunity, evidence and a proven record of similar behaviour and yet somehow - nope. Not good enough. Clearly more than reason is involved. Thanks for posting this reassuring proof that they do not, in fact, speak for all.

[Briar]

5. Forgot to add

that the writer gets Libya's reaction wrong. It did not welcome the news but declared three days of mourning.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Thanks to progreso for this article, and to you. Bush would have NEVER

allowed this man to live. He's also crazy if he thinks his guilt about what he has done to Iraq and its citizens will die with Hussein.