[BRIEF NOTE] Saddam's Right
Apr. 6th, 2006 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI hate to say it, but I have to agree with Saddam Hussein.
The Nuremberg Trials took place in the context of a Germany that was securely administered by the Allies, with the western zones being well on their way to rehabilitation. I don't recall left-wing militias running around Bavaria or the Rhineland, gleefully killing anyone at all conservative. Soviet policies in the future East Germany were altogether different, but I suspect that these aren't policies that any non-totalitarian polity should even want to follow.
Saddam's guilty. The Iraqi state as it is currently constituted does lack the moral authority to try him for his crimes against Iraqis, to say nothing of the sovereign authority, to say nothing of the atrocities committed against Iranians and Kuwaitis and Israelis. This will hurt Iraq and its successor states, in the end.
Saddam refused to sign documents, saying only an international court would be fair, and denounced the Interior Ministry as he faced cross examination for the first time. "It's the side that kills thousands in the street and tortures them ..." he said, criticizing the Shiite-run ministry, which is accused of running death squads by the Sunni Arabs who were dominant when Saddam ruled Iraq.
When the judge interrupted him, Saddam said: "If you're scared of the interior minister, he doesn't scare my dog."
Interior Minister Bayan Jabor is a hate figure among Sunnis, who accuse him of waging a sectarian war against them and allowing Shiite militias to run hit squads with impunity.
The Nuremberg Trials took place in the context of a Germany that was securely administered by the Allies, with the western zones being well on their way to rehabilitation. I don't recall left-wing militias running around Bavaria or the Rhineland, gleefully killing anyone at all conservative. Soviet policies in the future East Germany were altogether different, but I suspect that these aren't policies that any non-totalitarian polity should even want to follow.
Saddam's guilty. The Iraqi state as it is currently constituted does lack the moral authority to try him for his crimes against Iraqis, to say nothing of the sovereign authority, to say nothing of the atrocities committed against Iranians and Kuwaitis and Israelis. This will hurt Iraq and its successor states, in the end.
