Trial of Saddam Hussein & The Rule of Law

Gajendra Singh Sahib,
This has to be one of the better articles that I have come across on this site in the last six months or so.
I think it is a very well researched & well put together article. While I agree with the main push of the article, I feel that there is lots of Anti-Americanism lurking behind there somewhere. I also feel that some of the arguments used are pretty much borrowed from the old left. Though nothing particularly wrong with that but when we come down to defending Sadam Hussein, we lose sight of the real issues. Sadam is not an issue after his ouster and that has been amply demonstrated by the Iraqi people. Iraqis are almost neutral or don’t give a damn about his fate.
We can argue about his actions in Kuwait and there is a strong possibility that he acted in Iraq’s national interests but those interests were; the power and wealth of his own coterie and not of the Iraqi people. His claim that Kuwait was stealing oil from Iraq and lowering the prices to hurt Iraq actually does not have much sway.
Iraq in 1990 was not the largest oil producer. in fact, it was not even the third or the fourth on the list. If Kuwait was pumping oil to lower the oil prices, it was actually hurting other countries more than Iraq. Then why Kuwait was so violently invaded by Iraq? The dispute on the Oil wells was not new at all. It was there for years and Iraq never did anything about it.
I agree that April Glaspie or the US may have misled Sadam, but since when playing some diplomatic games to get an enemy or perceived enemy were considered wrong in the international relations?
If we go by the history, we see lots of deceptions and games playing between nations thru out the history.
What is there to believe that Sadam himself was not playing some games there? May be he thought that the US was bluffing him?

That’s all history. The real issue is what is happening now in Iraq. There is lots of hurt and the US policies have not only failed Iraqis but its own people too. The flouting of the international treatise by the US is already showing deep impact in the international relations and the new administration in Washington will have to work double overtime to mitigate the damage done by the Bush admin.

I have a few questions and I have not been able to find answers to them. May be you have a better insight because you did bring that up in your article.

1 WMD. We know that the whole thing was all made up and there is nothing to prove that Iraq had the WMDs. Now, the US admin and the security agencies including the CIA are totally embarrassed about not finding WMD in Iraq. I think we all agree with that. It would be hard to believe that the real knowledgeable and the grown ups did not know that there were no WMDs in Iraq before the war. So, if they knew there were no WMDs or if they found out within days of Iraq occupation that there were no WMDs in Iraq then why did they not PLANT those WMDs in Iraq right away? It could not be a difficult thing to produce 5Lbs of Anthrax or Sarin or any malicious Chemical from the vast Iraqi desert and display that on the TV. Who was there to challenge the finding? My question: why the US did not do that?

2. The liar factor. By not finding even small quantity of WMDs, the US admin has completely lost its credibility in the eyes of the world and it is a matter of time before it loses credibility in the US also. Why all the agencies in the US allowed the US president to look like an idiot and a liar when they could have easily planted WMDs in Iraq and saved face?

3. True that Bush would like to use the Sadam trial for re-election, but there are enough forces within the establishment, that are adamant in not seeing Bush re-elected. Proof- The release of Abu ghraib pictures and a daily dose of tidbits that impact the Bush admin’s credibility. Obviously, there are forces within the establishment that are behind this campaign. It appears that they don’t want the US policy changed but they do want this president to go. Who are these people?

khamkhwa: eidaN keh pai ...ThanDi karke rakh ditti ay.:)

Gajendra, (Maharana?)
Are you from Udaipur?
Anyway, that`s a pretty good article! You can say that about the BBC but what if the choice is Sky News or Fox News?

nikki yaar...

your fire seems to have been extinguished by the punjabees...translated in hindi it would be...punjabion ne teri garmi khatam ker ke thanda ker diya ... please get back to your original self...

your fan
khamkhwa...;)

Good Essay. One could compare the following actions of USA and try to evlauate the legality of what is right and what is wrong.

Can a country decide that in a war on terror, who goes to Guantanemo Bay and who does not. Should the law not apply equally? Is not some sort of misjustice taking place even within the US Judicial system?

If Saddam the Supreme Commander of the Iraqi Forces was not Treated as a POW, was the change in his status legal? and who decides that in the same war some people will be treated as POWs and some as crimminals?

Why not hand over all Iraqi POWs to the Iraqi governing council?

Was the international tribunal bypassed because it does not carry a death sentence?

These are some of the material and technical irregularities which in the course of future history will set aside the US case.

Cheerios

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Vote Democrat 2004!...please don`t through your vote away to and third parties (Nader)...who split the democrat vote last time

Gujendra Sahib

US has been doing this for the past 80 years since world war I to helpless and poor third world nations. This is what puts food on the table and keeps them prosperous. In the past their crimes against other nations were hidden under the cloud of ideological fight against USSR. But now emperor is naked.