The murder of Saddam Hussein

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.arabisto.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogID=6&blogEntryID=278

The murder of Saddam Hussein

December 29, 2006 09:48 AM

Thoughts on the murder of Saddam Hussein
By Ray Hanania

I don’t sympathize with Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein, but I do hold sacred the international rule of law and the principle that justice must be blind.

That’s why I oppose the execution of Saddam Hussein. It’s also why I believe that Saddam Hussein did not receive a fair trial. His execution is a war crime and an act of murder. snip

Saddam Hussein was not sent to the Hague, nor was an Interneational tribunal convened because Bush cannot guarantee a conviction or death sentence there. It might also open questions about Bush’s conduct in Iraq.

If Saddam Hussein can be prosecuted for quelling a rebellion against his regime, cannot President Bush therefore be prosecuted for violating international law? snip

There is also one more legal issue that is being ignored by the kangaroo court in Baghdad. If we accept the assertions that the war in Iraq is legal, then Saddam Hussein is a prisoner of war. His murder is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, that we have already ignored in our conduct in torturing and mistreatment other prisoners.

Regardless, sentencing Saddam Hussein to death is a violation of international law. But killing him is an immoral act tantamount to murder exposing Bush administration hypocrisies.

All of these violated principles and laws may one day come back to haunt us as Americans.

[Pachamama]

1. I feel the same way and agree that this was US sanctioned murder and a violation of Int'l law

Saddam should have been considered a POW and tried in the Hague....

But, the truth is, the Bush Co. wanted and needed Saddam dead....Dead men don't speak or give details.

[zonmoy]

2. plus the inevitable attacks on the puppet regime

will give us the excuse to make iraq a permanent colony ala Vietnam.

[EFerrari]

4. I knew they would never let him live long enough to talk.

What an awful night. :hug: to you Pachamama. I hope the new year is better.

[Pachamama]

14. I'm afraid that there is going to be so much violence coming...as if there hasn't already been too

much....:cry:

The 3000th soldiers death is going to come fast and the number I'm afraid will jump very quickly....

I hope the New Year is better too, but I have a bad feeling of things coming....

Namaste to you and your family sfexpat! :hi:

[tomp]

3. to the extent that i understand the law, i agree.

the war is illegal, the trial was illegal.

can anyone speak authoritatively on the legal issues here?

[Erika]

5. Since the Iraqis formed a legal government,

Saddam could no longer be called a POW.

Was this an unfair trial and a joke? Yes.

[Moochy]

10. MMM Nuance

I tend to agree, that at this point despite it being a "puppet" govt. that he wasn't a POW, more a prize for the puppet regime.

the client state executed him... One level of indirection solves any problem! :sarcasm: or something...

[brokensymmetry]

6. Good points - K&R, of course.

Our problem is the classic Imperial problem.

We can get away with anything - until we falter.
And we will falter, someday, somehow. Then we'll
get back what we gave. Who knows, maybe the Wiccans
are right, and we'll get it back three-fold.

I wonder how the rulers of that future time will
react when they are on trial by a kangaroo court?

[kentuck]

7. K & R

Just for the truth of the matter.

[Cleita]

8. Did the gassing of the Kurds come up in this trial?

Because if it did then I believe Cheney and Rummy would be complicit. Didn't they give the gas to Saddam?

[babylonsister]

15. Not at all. They only took one crime of SH out of many. nt

[Jcrowley]

9. K&R n/t

[WillyT]

11. K & R !!!

:kick:

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. This was a desperate move to do something to change the "dynamic"

in Iraq. This is the best that they could come up with. It won't work. Nothing that they have tried has worked.

[Cleita]

13. Everything they do is destructive. They can't do anything

constructive. So every destructive move makes things worse, not better. Historically, trying to get rid of your enemies or anyone that stands in your way by killing them never works out like it's supposed to in the long run. I suppose that bunch never studied history though.

[tridim]

16. Or as the CNN reporter just put it..

"The assasi..er..Execution of Saddam Hussein"

[indepat]

17. Almost everything this administration has done will come back to haunt and hurt

us.