I voted NO as this is a farce of a trial for many reasons. Death penalties are usually for the convenience of the sentencer and justice is the furthest thing from their minds. It is really revenge that motivates- just like 9/11. Instead of looking at the root causes of the event we are more prone to resort to our good old Meme about an eye for an eye, without even considering all the factors that make our decisions- we let our feelings and beliefs interfere with our reason. And so we go , civilized man steeped in his civilized violence. And of course, this solves nothing about the root causes of violence, it only feeds its existence.
Look back at this article from May, 2005
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/05 ... 88428.html
Quote:
....The trial is being held under American military occupation, which in itself raises serious questions about its legitimacy. American fingerprints are all over it.....The US created the Iraqi Special Tribunal; the FBI gathered the evidence against the former dictator; American lawyers chose and trained the magistrates and judges; the US Congress financed the whole operation with a $128 million (Dh470 million) allocation; while the US Army has assumed responsibility for protecting the proceedings.If putting Saddam in the dock with seven of his associates cannot entirely be dismissed as a "show trial", or as an example of "victor's justice", it must nevertheless be seen as a political trial. That is another major flaw....
The prime American motive for staging the trial would seem to be to provide a justification for the invasion an unprovoked aggression which has been denounced by much of the world as illegal under international law and a violation of both the UN Charter and Iraq's sovereignty.....If it can be demonstrated, however, that Saddam's regime posed a danger to his own people and to international security, then the invasion could perhaps be defended on humanitarian and security grounds as a "just war"......would seem to be the Anglo-American strategy in bringing Saddam to trial.
Another widely-aired criticism concerns the timing. What was the hurry?..... wise to hold a trial of such historic importance while the insurgency raged outside the court-room?.... sensible to inflame the Sunni community just when attempts were being made to draw it into the political process? Could not the trial have waited until foreign forces were withdrawn?.....would certainly have given a more authentic Iraqi colouring to the proceedings.
In the end the author points out some interesting facts and perspectives that most americans want to ignore and forget.
Quote:
But what if Saddam is found guilty for the atrocities at Dujail? He could then be executed within 30 days of the sentence, as the rules of the tribunal provide.
If this were to happen, the opportunity would be lost for a systematic judicial investigation of his whole record in power.
This would be a loss for history and for the education of the Iraqi people.
If the Iraqis are to rebuild their state on the rule of law, they need the trial to be scrupulously fair by international standards and they need it to illumine Saddam's whole career.
The trouble is that the Western powers not just the US and Britain but also France, Germany and other countries as well are in no real position to throw stones.
They helped Saddam in his war against Iran. They may even have encouraged him to fight so as to contain Ayatollah Khomeini, whose revolutionary message threatened to overturn the existing order in the Gulf. They sold Saddam large quantities of weapons.
Western countries supplied him with the ingredients for the poison gas he used against the Kurds and the Iranians. The US supplied him with intelligence about Iranian troop movements.
The US Navy opened a second front in the Gulf against Iran, contributing to the Ayatollah's decision to end the war.
In turn, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states largely financed Saddam's war.
Another serious charge which must be levelled against the US and Britain is that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, smashed the state, sharpened sectarian and ethnic tensions and fatally compromised the unity of Iraq and its future as a major Arab power.
When will the perpetrators of these crimes be put on trial and before which court?
Seeing how things have progressed I'd say the author was pretty well dead on with his prophecies!
Death penalties are wrong, for all the right reasons. On the global scale these tyrants should be made to live on daily with their past but incarcerated, not like Pinochet. This is what he means at the end. Bring the real terrorists from the ivory towers to the banks to the Downing street scum and the real mass murderers in the Blackhouse.
Seems like
The Rulers that Be want the tyrant out of the way before he talks too much about their involvement.
FYI- It has been estimated that American policies and actions covert or otherwise are responsible for up to 6 million deaths
per year in the world, especially the third world!
Yep, Saddam sure was brutal!
