Robert Scheer: Silencing Saddam

[marmar]

Robert Scheer: Silencing Saddam

It is a very frightening precedent that the United States can invade a country on false pretenses, depose its leader and summarily execute him without an international trial or appeals process. This is about vengeance, not justice, for if it were the latter the existing international norms would have been observed. The trial should have been overseen by the World Court, in a country that could have guaranteed the safety of defense lawyers, who, in this case, were killed or otherwise intimidated.

The irony here is that the crimes for which Saddam Hussein was convicted occurred before the United States, in the form of Donald Rumsfeld, embraced him. Those crimes were well known to have occurred 15 months before Rumsfeld visited Iraq to usher in an alliance between the United States and Saddam to defeat Iran.

The fact is that Saddam Hussein knew a great deal about the United States’ role in Iraq, including deals made with Bush’s father. This rush to execute him had the feel of a gangster silencing the key witness to a crime.

At Nuremberg in the wake of World War II the U.S. set the bar very high by declaring that even the Nazis, who had committed the most heinous of crimes, should have a fair trial. The U.S. and allies insisted on this not to serve those charged, but to educate the public through a believable accounting. In the case of Saddam, the bar was lowered to the mud, with the proceedings turned into a political circus reminiscent of Stalin’s show trials

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061229_saddam_hussein_executed/

[Philosoraptor]

1. PRECISELY

[leftchick]

2. It was all about REVENGE

and hiding those pesky repuke administration connections to saddam.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. Not only revenge, but oneupmanship as well. Bush had to

prove to Poppy that he was the "better man". The fact that countless thousands of lives have been lost to prove his point are meaningless to Bush and his henchmen.

[Morgana LaFey]

21. I disagree

I really don't think it was even "as good as about" revenge or vengeance. I really don't.

I think Bush just wanted to kill the man, just because he could, just as he relished killing people -- just because he could -- while he was governor.

Oh, I don't mean that Bush didn't possibly have some "justifiable reason" going on in his head, but the REAL motivation, the core issue, was just bloodlust. That's all. The man we have in the White House is a sociopathic (psychopathic?) monster. Assigning motivations of "revenge" or "vengeance" to him is letting him off the hook.

[lostnotforgotten]

3. Help Me Understand

Saddam Hussein executed for gassing some hundreds of Kurds.

Bush kills 3,000 US troops (maimed some 20,000 or so) and probably some 600,000 Iraqis.

Is there a disconnect here?

The implications are obvious to me.

[marmar]

6. And Saddam? Bad. Pinochet? Good. .... More psychotic right wing logic.

:think:

[MH1]

12. Actually, he was NOT executed for gassing the Kurds.

He was executed for ordering the executions of people who (he claimed) had participated in an assassination plot against him.

Some of those people were under the age of 18.

Some states in the US have carried out executions of people under 18.

I believe it is not uncommon in countries under non-democratic governments, that people plotting to assassinate the ruler, will be executed if caught.


---

A couple notes:

1. I am categorically opposed to the death penalty for a variety of reasons.
2. What I am saying above is that even someone who accepts the death penalty as valid, should look at what this execution was ostensibly for, put it in context of how the world operates, and it seems a bit suspect, doesn't it?
3. It is not so surprising that he was executed by the new government of Iraq, nor particularly lamentable unless one categorically opposes execution; but for the US to be perceived as orchestrating it, to me lowers our government considerably.

[leftchick]

17. correction: He was not killed for the Kurd gassing

had he been tried for that all of those nasty facts like where the gas came from and who turned a blind eye to it (hint: reagun administration) would have come out. He was killed for the 148 dead in another attack. Convenient, eh?

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Not just to you.

In fact, I think most of the people on this board see it like you do.

[radfringe]

4. Saddam may have been silenced

but the bombs and guns are still loud and clear

[moondust]

7. K/R.

[Benhurst]

8. Recommended #6

[pberq]

9. "the feel of a gangster silencing the key witness"

says it all.

[truth2power]

13. As I posted in LBN...

Dear Leader needed to shut him up before it came out in a second trial that the US stood around and did nothing while he was gassing the Kurds. We didn't care, as long as he was our friend. Then when he displeased us, we went all "righteous" on him.

[Senator]

10. Had he managed to get here, it would have been a Xmas Eve Pardon

Like Poppy's other co-conspirators. (BTW, there's no statute of limitations on impeaching Poppy for that obstruction of justice.)

Libby's pardon is on deck to push the next headline (like 3000 US soldiers dead) off the Euphemedia radar pixel.

--

[unblock]

11. add to that the fact that the bfee stole elections to get into a position to do this....

[donsu]

14. I'm hoping Saddam had the foresight to leave evidence against the

criminal neo con bushmilhousegang in a safe place. with a person or persons that can reveal it to the world in a safe way.

[Octafish]

15. Truth hurts Evil.

Then again, "It's strictly business."

[smirkymonkey]

16. "...a gangster silencing the key witness to a crime."

That says it all.

This was a mob hit, albeit a very complicated mob hit with an enormous mess created in the process.

[cool user name]

18. Can I get an AMEN!!!

[marmar]

22. Amen, brother Cool User Name.

:)

[Ms. Clio]

19. k&r

I don't expect that the people who need to read this will do so, however. That's not their purpose here.

[KoKo]

20. Good Article....thanks.. n/t

[Jcrowley]

24. K&R n/t