Should those who put and kept Saddam Hussein in power be put on trial next?

[ConsAreLiars]

Iraq has a long history, but in very brief terms, recently, British Colonial power was replaced by a monarchy that got offed by a military faction (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Karim_Qassim ) that got offed by the CIA and the anti-communist Baathists (see http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Jan2004/shalom0104.html ), and then, with CIA support, the Saddam faction offed the competing Baathist factions.

Thus began a long and glorious collaboration between those controlling the US state apparatus and Mr. Hussein. Together, they were able to accomplish wonderful massacres, test chemical weapons in the north and south, and go to war against Iran. (As you may recall, Iran had unfortunately reacted to the CIA's installation of a brutal pro-US dictator (who had been put in place by offing an elected Allende type nationalist-populist) by reverting to religious fundamentalism as a form of resistance to imperial power. See Iraq for a more recent example.)

As usual (see Noriega) CIA installed thugs have an unfortunate tendency to think they are free agents and get a bit uppity.

So, should those in the US who put and kept Saddam Hussein in power be put on trial next (realizing that this is not a realistic option for now)?

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[still_one]

1. yes, but it won't happen

[dweller]

2. Absolutely.

i voted other.

realizing at some point in the future options become a reality.
dp

[ConsAreLiars]

6. That caveat was in the restatement of the question at the end, but

that was just what I was thinking when I finished it up. If (when?) we become a truly just society with leadership that reflects and expresses that basic decency we (mostly) all aspire to, those kinds of public tribunals would be a natural expression of that change. "Truth Commissions" as in South Africa, rather than hanging orgies.

[dweller]

8. GMTA ...

one day we'll be known as warriors, wise beyond our times.
dp

[ConsAreLiars]

10. I won't claim the "GM" part (well, maybe as a wish) but I do my utmost be be reality-based

and evidence driven in my views. Not an impossible goal, despite the human susceptibility to illusion (Maya). But even the average dog can to a decent job of it, even though the dog's world is more limited to what it has directly experienced. So it seems a reasonable goal. And with it comes some responsibility to act and speak. Actually, more a necessity.

[hootinholler]

3. Other...

Aren't the guys who did that dead?

-Hoot

[ConsAreLiars]

7. Rumsfeld, Cheney, Poppy, Kissinger, etc. are all dead?

Geez, I missed that news. I guess you didn't read the links or otherwise learn that bit of history.

[hootinholler]

11. I didn't know that's why I asked...

Can you support that those guys installed him? From looking at his bios it seems he was working towards where he got to for a long time.

-Hoot

[regnaD kciN]

4. And the true irony here...

...is that the specific crime for which Hussein was executed was one that took place while he was "our guy" in the fight against Iran. The campaign had full U.S. backing, and I have no doubt that the specific massacre of the Shi'ite town likewise was seen in Washington as a more-than-justified action against the Iranian Islamist threat to "our interests in the region," given tacit (and, most likely, more than that) approval in advance.

Now, we hand him over to those very same allies of Iran to be put to death for something he did as our puppet. And we wash our hands and call ourselves moral paragons. :puke:

[ConsAreLiars]

9. It is doublespeak at the mega level.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak . It is a very good article.

Instead of words and concepts being turned into their opposites, it is history itself.

[Nutmegger]

5. Yes because they have blood on their hands too.

They're just as bad. Try them, convict them and let them rot in their cells.