Sunday, December 31, 2006
Killing Hussein is another important step in Iraq
It won't end the violence but it sends a long overdue messge to the Arabs and Muslims.
by Ferdinand III
Lost in most of the media reporting of Hussein’s death is the base and important fact that an Iraqi court, an Iraqi tribunal, premised on Iraqi law, supported by an elected Iraqi government executed this bacillus of a man. The Iraqi’s had the common sense to tire of the long legal proceedings – which in the effeminate West would have taken 10 years or longer and dispensed justice with what many call ‘undue haste’. A 3 year trial is hardly hasty. It is in fact far too long. It would have been much smarter to shoot Hussein upon capture and hang his body in the center of Baghdad for all to see. The ‘Roman way of war’ has certain alluring aspects that we could learn from.
Hussein’s trial was a dangerous absurdity. Lawyers from France and liberal America defended the indefensible. The Hussein defense incredibly tried to negotiate with the Americans to reinstate Hussein as a strong-man leader of Iraq while the Americans drew down their forces. This was barely mentioned in the media. Hussein’s daily soapbox tirades in the courtroom mocked the new Iraq and the American occupation. As a former Iraqi Vice President Yawar blithely stated during the trial of a man that murdered more people than anyone since Pol Pot: "This has become a platform for Hussein to show himself as a caged lion when really he was a mouse in a hole." I don't know who is the genius who is producing this farce. It's a political process. It's a comedy show."
Allowing a madman a stage is not intelligent. When asked about a possible capture and trial of Hitler Churchill was very direct and transparent stating that Hitler would be executed as a mass murdering criminal should be and that no trial would be countenanced for the madman from Linz Austria. Yet 60 years later apparently common sense has left the Americans.
Some wits state that we had to try Hussein to show that the justice system works and that all citizens have rights under a Western styled judicial system. After all we had the Nuremberg trials after the Second World War. But this is incorrect. The Nuremberg trials were showcases of Nazi guilt and atrocity. There were no million dollar lawyers; Al Jazeera [or pro Nazi] media cameras; nor any elongated discourse by Nazi leaders on their innocence and their divine right to rule. The data was collected, analyzed and presented and the Nazi leadership condemned and dispensed with. If Hitler had survived he would certainly have been shot out of hand.
At least now the death of Hussein removes a lightening rod of Sunni agitation; a man whose money was helping to fund the terrorist attacks in Iraq; and the long shadow of a former dictator that still proclaimed himself the legitimate former and future ruler of Iraq – much to the discomfort of Shias and Kurds. The Western media and Al Jazeera can no longer reprint his anti-American missives nor can they sympathetically portray him as a confused old man who is being tortured and abused by the US military. His death will not end the violence in Iraq but it does send the ‘right message’ to the Arabs and Muslims.
Bush went to war for 23 good reasons cited in the act signed by Congress. Killing Hussein is part of establishing a civil society in Iraq and one of many good reasons the US is occupying Iraq. Hussein’s death might even provoke in the Arab and Muslim world a reconsideration of our supposed weakness. Maybe now the Arab and Islamic fascists will understand that we are maybe not as docile; pathetic and cultural insecure as they think. The long arm of Western moral and military law should make all Arab and Islamic fascists pause, reconsider and perhaps change their actions. Peace is only achieved through war. Hussein’s death is yet another positive milestone in a long and dirty war.