Saddam Hussein has been found guilty and sentenced to hang, leaving the despot visually shaken in court. In what is perhaps the final blow to his facade of arrogance, he was judged guilty of crimes against humanity for the mass murders of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail in 1982.
Once a panel of nine judges reviews the case, and providing the verdict holds, Saddam will be hanged by the neck until he dies within 30 days.
While the judicial panel reviews the verdict, the trial for Saddam's murder of ethnic Kurds will begin, but if he is to executed in the interim, the trial would be stopped upon his death.
I say try him in absentia, post-mortem.
But, while the sane people of the world are heartened by this display of righteous justice, the usual gang of idiots are out vomiting their idiodicy: The Sunnis, Jordanians, and terror groups are whining, as well as Amnesty International. It seems that they think that the trial was "marred by serious flaws."
I submit that the only flaw the trial had was allowing Saddam to carry on like a spoiled toddler for most of his time in court, rather than simply removing him and allowing the proceedings to continue without his disruptive presence.
I'll bet that he got a far more equitable trial than anyone who fell under his dictatorship's judgment.
And not to be left out, the Dems are trying desperately to spin this bit of fantastic news to their political advantage:
(From NewsBusters)
Here's an antidote from an unlikely corner for all the Dem outrage at the 'November surprise' of the Saddam verdict. On this morning's 'Today,' none other than Chris Matthews just pronounced his considered opinion that the verdict actually helps . . . the Democrats.
According to Matthews, given the unpopularity of the war, anything that draws attention to Iraq hurts Republicans. Apparently that even extends to a good-news story such as the Saddam verdict.
Opined Matthews to host Lester Holt:
"One general rule would be anything that brings attention to Iraq is bad for the Republicans. I think Iraq's become a four-letter word for the voter. And this trial and condemnation of Saddam Hussein is probably going to remind us of Iraq again. It's probably going to help the Democrats to some extent."
More predictable was the analysis over at CNN, where a skeptical Susan Roesgen asked Suzanne Malveaux:
"What about critics, especially in Iraq, even Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer, who say the verdict was timed to come out just before the election to help the GOP?"
Well, if Saddam's lawyer said it, that should surely be good enough for CNN!
Roesgen continued her effort to rain on the Saddam-verdict parade in a subsequent interview of international criminal law expert Prof. Michael Scharf of Case Western law school. Asked the cynical CNN host:
"Does this turn [Saddam] into a martyr for the Iraqi people more than a monster?"
Oh yeah - huge martyr to all those Shias and Kurds whose relatives he slaughtered.
And later: "In some ways this trial has been a sideshow compared to the ongoing bloodshed in the streets of Iraq. Does this verdict really matter?"
Translation: let's get off this positive development and back to the IEDs!
I'll betcha' didn't know that we evil conservatives planned all of this to our sinister advantage, did you? Puh-lease!
I think that this Iraqi said it the best:
I was overwhelmed with joy and relief as I watched the criminals being read their verdicts. For the first time in our region tyrants are being punished for their crimes through a court of law.
Until this moment and while I’m typing these words I’m still receiving words of congratulations in emails, phone calls and text messages from friends inside and outside the country. These were our only means to share our happiness because of the curfew that limits our movement.
This is the day for Saddam’s lovers to weep and I expect their shock and grieve to be huge. They had always thought their master was immortal so let them live in their disappointment while we live for our future.
This is a day not only for Iraqis but a historic day for the whole region; today new basis for dealing between rulers and peoples are found.
No one is above the law anymore.
-- Mohammed from Iraq The Model
(h/t to Free Cyprus for the above quote)
Another bit of irony is that the very weekend of his sentencing, The New York Times accused the Bush administration of helping Iran get the plans to construct nuclear weapons by carelessly posting Iraq's nuclear weapons program documents on a government website.
Hey, wait just a minute... I thought the leftists said they never had anything like that, or any knowledge about it!
No comments:
Post a Comment