IN THE NEWS
Poliblogger is justifiably disturbed by the sentencing of Saddam Hussein. I'd only disagree with the depth of his concern. The verdict is more than a missed opportunity.
The United States invested its blood, treasure, and prestige in Iraq, for the stated reason that we would shepherd this hapless country from dictatorship to democracy. Instead, we've seen the trial of Saddam Hussein grind on for years, and it's still not finished. Members of the court have been attacked or threatened by insurgents, highlighting the level of violence and disorder in post-Ba'ath Iraq. Inevitably, Hussein has used the courtroom as guerrilla theater, but the Iraqi government has hardly made an eloquent, compelling response to his outbursts.
No execution is a happy moment. However, Saddam Hussein's execution will be far sadder than it should have been. It will be a notable event in modern Iraqi history for all the wrong reasons.
What you said.
The US has failed to create even basic security in Iraq. Instead, there is only worsening chaos, no justice (unless death squads with power drills and kangaroo courts are the spirit and letter of the law) and no hope at all on the horizon for meaningful change, let alone for "a flowering of democracy".
The US in turn has proceeded down a path that has changed the nature of its own Constitution and government. Torture is justified (as long as it is not called that). Arrest without warrant is possible (just dont frame it that way). Spying on Americans is for their own good. Judicial review can be denied lawfully (Just relabel prisoners as "terrorists and their supporters" and all things become possible). Of course, this "dirty" strategy has not just utterly failed to achieve meaninful objectives, but has seriously eroded the very democracy it has been employed to protect and foster.
Against all this, I have to say, Saddam's death feels like...just another killing of another Iraqi....just another day in the Iraqi nightmare.
Saddam is dead now, like Uday and Qusay and all the good, the bad and the ugly that came before and will keep coming into the forseeable future....but Team Cheney is alive and kicking, laying in the blood-stained bed of their own making. And, that is no victory for justice or for civilization.
One last thing to end my little rant (and please forgive me if I've gone on too long or seem overly bitter...its just how I am feeling about the rotten mess). Lets realize that future Presidents will most definitely wake up in the bed of Cheney's design, and all the context it implies. They, being human and being politicians, will be tempted by its seemingly easy answers out of frustration or desperation...or after being fully seduced by the dreams of hegemony that sleeping in it brings.
Posted by: 1MaNLan | 12/30/2006 at 07:39