Dumb questions on Saddam not being tried for genocide.

[gulliver]

Is he the only one who can be tried for this? Did he carry it out alone? Are there still purchase order copies and receipts for the weapons and parts in any of Iraq's ministries?

[StClone]

1. Dead men tell No Tales

I get the impression Saddam was quickly tried on charges that would call for his execution but not connect U.S.complicity in his violent rise and reign. He was offed quickly to keep him from blabbing the whole sordid tale of the wonders of American operations that aided our "friend" against Iran and God knows what else.

Song to the tune of "These are a few of my favorite things"

Blow backs and shit storms
and our weapons used against us

Secret ops and death squads
and billions to influence

Drug money sales to fund
regional warfares...

[gulliver]

7. Yes, but couldn't they just try someone else?

I mean it's a war crime and a crime against humanity. So they could just pick the general who carried out the order and try him. Then the evidence still comes out. I don't know how much stock the world places in the word of Saddam Hussein anyway. But get a former general on trial, some procurement receipts, a bunch of witnesses...it would be as good as trying Hussein to get to the bottom of things.

I'm not sure they would find anything that would incriminate, say, Halliburton, but at least the Kurds would get some degree of justice for the crime.

[Erika]

2. The records would link the GOP U.S. with the deaths

Don't you think there was a reason he wasn't tried for the deaths of the Kurds?

[LynnTheDem]

4. And the fact that more Kurds have been killed by...

KURDS...than by Hussein, Iran, and Turkey combined.

That would put another dent in the trial.

[Erika]

3. The records would link the GOP U.S. with the deaths

Don't you think there was a reason he wasn't tried for the deaths of the Kurds?

[kath]

6. RIghto, Erika! For more details, see this excellent article by Robert Fisk:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2114403.ece
He takes his secrets to the grave. Our complicity dies with him
How the West armed Saddam, fed him intelligence on his 'enemies', equipped him for atrocities - and then made sure he wouldn't squeal
Published: 31 December 2006

We've shut him up. The moment Saddam's hooded executioner pulled the lever of the trapdoor in Baghdad yesterday morning, Washington's secrets were safe. The shameless, outrageous, covert military support which the United States - and Britain - gave to Saddam for more than a decade remains the one terrible story which our presidents and prime ministers do not want the world to remember. And now Saddam, who knew the full extent of that Western support - given to him while he was perpetrating some of the worst atrocities since the Second World War - is dead.
<more>

[Erika]

10. This war sickens anyone with a conscience.

There is no other way to put it. It is absolutely insane that W went along with it but he sees only $ in his crass little GOP mind.

[SanCristobal]

5. He was tried along with a group of Baathist higher ups.

A few of his companions were found guilty for the same crime he was and are to be hanged sometime soon. As for records, Saddam's government kept few and destroyed much of what they had in the run up to the war. Most high level Baath officials were more concerned with hiding evidence of their crimes then making Bush and friends look bad three years later.

[gulliver]

8. Destroying documents might make sense...

... but hiding documents incriminating to foreign bigshots would make more sense. It seems to me if no one ends up getting tried for genocide against the Kurds, it could be because of documents destroyed or documents kept -- either one.

[LynnTheDem]

12. He wasn't tried for genocide; he was tried & convicted for signing

148 death penalty warrants.

And then executed via a signed death penalty warrant.

[Old and In the Way]

9. He ran out of time.

Bush time.

[Erika]

11. Let's hope the Dems have the guts to shut Iraq down

W has wasted too many there.