And The Beauty Of It Is, Now Saddam Will Never Tell Anyone About Who Supplied Him With The WMDs In The First Place

(Sky News) Arab Anger Over Eid Execution

(Information Clearinghouse) ‘Illegal’ Execution Enrages Arabs

“Illegal Execution?” Yup, according to Iraqi law, no verdicts may be carried out on a Muslim holy day. And Eid al-Adha is a very holy day. Not only does it mark a period in the Hajj pilgrimage, but it celebrates the substitution of the ram for Ibraham’s son Ismael, when he was prepared to sacrifice him to obey Allah’s command. Sound familiar? The celebration is marked by the sacrifice of an innocent lamb. Now, just consider the symbolism of the “sacrifice” of Saddam. The timing of Saddam’s execution by the U.S. puppet Iraqi government has to be the stupidest since the Roman puppet state of Judaea executed what was considered at the time a minor Galilean prophet just before the Pasch. We’ve not only made Saddam a martyr to the Iraqi Sunnis, but we’ve offended every Muslim in the world, Sunni and Shia alike. I don’t care IF the Iraqi government claims responsibility for it. THEY should have known better. One wonders if this was a deliberate attempt to make sectarian conflict explode.

But Can You Believe A Puppet?

(AP) Snow denies Saddam trial ‘scheming’

(AFP) Bush spurts toward campaign finish after Saddam verdict (Ah, I love that headline)

Granted Saddam is an evil tyrant who deserved the death penalty, but do we do the world any service by trying him in a kangaroo court? This should have been an international tribunal, not an Iraqi one, since there’s no way he could have gotten a fair trial in Iraq. One of the standard motions in America is the change of venue for someone who cannot obtain a fair trial in a given location. I put it that the Bush administration made another huge mistake in not forcing this trial to take place in an international court. Of course, that’s partly because the Bushies deny consistently the status of international proceedings, but it’s also because in an international court, Saddam could have mounted a true defence–and in doing so, exposed US involvement in his crimes going back to Reagan and Bush the first and involving Cheney and Rumsfeld. All in all, a sad day for the principles of justice.

Yeah, I Know, There Are More Important Things But I Can’t Help It, Saddam’s Hunger Strikes Are FUNNY!

(Reuters/WashPost) Saddam on hunger strike to protest lawyer’s death

(Reuters/WashPost) Saddam ends hunger strike after missing one meal

What’s NOT funny is Saddam’s lawyers getting assassinated. According to the bush*tters in the administration, we’re bringing democracy to Iraq. One of the bases of democracy is the availability of a fair trial to ANYONE from shoplifters to child molesters to serial killers to mass murderers. Unless people who perform ghastly crimes get a fair hearing, there’s no guarantee that anyone ELSE will. YOUR right to tell a judge that you didn’t deserve the ticket for a red light because the light was obscured depends on scumbags being allowed to exercise THEIR right to declare their innocence. A lot of people say when someone’s been accused of a heinous crime: “They should just take him out and hang him.” But that’s wrong. That is not justice. It may be what they deserve. But it is not justice unless the law, the government, a jury of his peers, says that that is what should be done. And to deny that to Saddam, and to murder the people who are trying to get that fair trial for him, is a denial of any sort of true justice under democratic principles.