Oct
18
Will Saddam get a fair trial? Do we care?
Filed Under Polemics & Politics on October 18, 2005 at 8:05 pm
Well, tomorrow is the big day. Saddam goes on trial in a special court set up by the Americans with judges appointed by the Americans. As Chiggy put it to me today "there are marsupials in the building". I have to say I agree with him that this stinks of being a Kangaroo court rather than a fair trial.
Now, the simple fact is that I don’t believe for a second Saddam is NOT guilty of crimes against humanity, you just have to see what he did to the Kurds after they rebelled at the end of the last war and to what happens people who spoke out against Saddam in his Iraq.
However, if you are going to try the man to show how much your society has advanced since he was gone and to justify killing the man perhaps you should actually live up to the standards you claim to have now and give the man a fair trial rather than a trial orchestrated by the Americans.
The people of Iraq should be running this trial, not the Americans and the people of Iraq should have decided how they wanted the trial to operate, what charges they wish to bring and who the judges should be. Saddam should also be given all the same rights as any other person in the Iraqi justice system.
Now, do we CARE that this is a kangaroo court? The man is obviously and evil bastard so he doesn’t deserve a real trial. Perhaps but I would argue that NOT giving Saddam a fair trial cheapens the new Iraq and is an insult to the people of Iraq. I say give the man a fair trial, not because he deserves it but because the new Iraq deserves not to be cheapened and sullied by a kangaroo court.