Whoever is handling Saddam Hussein’s public relations endeavors is doing a really great job. Watching the trial on television, one is confronted by a dignified Saddam that in a traditional Islamic greeting bids the court "peace to all people of peace" before he launches into a tirade of complaints. His understated grey double-breasted suit and tie less white shirt give him an air of benignity and make him look vaguely like Dennis Miller, the american comedian.
Then there is the presence of former U.S. attorney General Ramsey Clark, who has joined Saddam’s defense team to ensure that he receives the best possible legal representation. Clark sitting in Saddam’s corner affords the hoary old murderer added legitimacy.
Personally, I think the americans miscalculated when they arrested Saddam and turned him over to the Iraqis for trial. Given that they were in the middle of a war, it might have been a better idea for Saddam to have become a war casualty and join his psychotic sons in Paradise. But, then the dye is cast and everyone appears to be putting their best foot forward. Certainly, Saddam’s efforts don’t appear to be lost on the world media.
I find it curious that there would be any sympathy for the likes of Saddam, given what we know about his regime. When Nazi war criminals went to trial starting in 1945, they were not given the status or dignity that Saddam is currently enjoying and the crimes for which he is accused are no less heinous than those of the Nazis.
While the liberal Western elites are outraged over the abuses the americans imposed on some Iraqi prisoners at the abu Ghraib prison, there is almost no mention of the things done there by Saddam’s regime. No one seems to know or care about the rape rooms, were women were subjected to horrible abuse by gangs of Saddam’s secret police, or the torture chambers that were used to extract confessions from even the toughest and most fearless opponents of his regime.
There is little or no outrage over the deaths of some 400,000 Kurds in the north, including the chemical gassing of 5,000 innocents in Halabja. Iraq had been systematically gassing the Kurds since 1987, when Hassan ali al Majid (better known as "Chemical ali"), one of Saddam’s cousins, was appointed as chief of the Northern Bureau, which was charged with dealing with the Kurds. In a directive issued by Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council (Decree # 160, March 29, 1987) he was granted full power to deal with the "final solution" of the Kurdish problem. Sound familiar?
Then there were over the 1,000,000 casualties suffered on both sides in the Iraq-Iran conflict that raged from 1980 to 1988. as an aside, I believe that Jimmy Carter, who tacitly approved of Saddam’s attempts to invade Iran, should be sharing the dock with Saddam, if that matter is ever brought to trial.
The draining and burning of the marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers has been called the greatest environmental crime in history. Yet the liberal elites would much rather focus on the environmental "crimes" committed by their fellow citizens. These include owning SUVs, mowing one’s lawn with a gas lawnmower or wearing fur coats.
all of this is an indication of the moral relativism that has become commonplace in our culture. We pride ourselves in not being "judgmental" of others. But our reluctance to render judgment on what others do is one of the factors that enable evil to flourish. all one has to do is look at Saddam sitting in the Prisoners’ dock to see how evil can assume an air of respectability by simply dressing the part.