csua.org/u/e8t -> www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/08/AR2005120801310.html
Man for a Glass Booth By Charles Krauthammer Friday, December 9, 2005; Page A31 Of all the mistakes that the Bush administration has committed in Iraq, n one is as gratuitous and self-inflicted as the bungling of the trial of Saddam Hussein. Although Hussein deserves to be shot like a dog -- or, same thing, like t he Ceausescus -- we nonetheless decided to give him a trial. First, to d emonstrate the moral superiority of the new Iraq as it struggles to live by the rule of law.
War crimes trials are, above all and always, for educational purposes. Th is one was for the world to see and experience and recoil from the catal ogue of Hussein's crimes, and to demonstrate the justice of a war that s tripped this man and his gang of their monstrous and murderous power. Instead of Hussein's crimes being on tria l, he has succeeded in putting the new regime on trial. The lead story o f every court session has been his demeanor, his defiance, his imperious ness. The evidence brought against him by his hapless victims -- testimo ny mangled in translation and electronic voice alteration -- made the ba ck pages at best. "This has become a platform for Saddam to show himself as a caged lion wh en really he was a mouse in a hole," said Vice President Ghazi Yawar. "I don't know who is the genius who is producing this farce. There hasn't been such judicial incompetence since Judge Ito and the OJ trial. We can excuse the Iraqis, who are new to all this and justifiabl y terrified of retribution. But there is no excusing the Bush administra tion, which had Hussein in custody for two years and had even longer to think about putting on a trial that would not become a star turn for a d efeated enemy. We all remember the picture o f him pulled out of his spider hole. Instead, with every appearance, he dresses more regally, emerging from cowering captive to ordinary prisoner to dictator on temp orary leave. Now he carries on as legitimate and imperious head of state . He plays the benign father of his country, calling the judge "son," th en threatens the judge's life. Hussein shouts, defies, brandishes a Kora n The judge keeps telling him he's out of order. He disobeys with impun ity, the guards not daring to intervene. What kind of message does that send to Iraqis who have been endlessly tol d that Hussein and his regime were finished? "The performance has hearte ned his followers," writes The Post's Doug Struck from Baghdad. a large crowd of demonstrators chanted their loyalty on Tuesday . Several marchers said they were emboldened by his courtroom bravado." If anything, Hussein should be brought in wearing prison garb, perhaps in shackles, just for effect. He shouts, interrupts and does his Mussolini histrionics unmolested. Instead of the press being behind a glass wall, it is Husse in who should be. Better still, placed in a glass booth, like Eichmann, like some isolated specimen of deranged humanity, symbolically and physi cally cut off from the world of normal human values. And we are witness to a political test of wills betwe en the new Iraq represented by an as-yet incompetent judicial system and the would-be tyrant-for-life defiantly raising once again the banner of Baathism, on a worldwide stage afforded him by us . Until now the Baathists who constitute the bulk of this Sunni insurgency had no symbolic presence, no political platform, no visible leadership. Both President Bush and his opponents in Congress are incessantly talking about "benchmarks" to guide any US withdrawals from Iraq. But there i s one benchmark that is always left unspoken: We cannot leave until Sadd am Hussein is dead, executed for his crimes. As long as he is alive and well-dressed, every Iraqi wil l have to wonder what will happen to him and his family if Hussein retur ns. Only Hussein's death will assure them that he will not return. Which is why the lateness of this trial is such a tragedy. Our only hope, as always with Hussein, is that he destroys himself with his arrogance and stupidity. He should not be all owed back, certainly not without a glass booth. Only Saddam Hussein can save us from our own incompetence.
|
http://csua.com/feed/