aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, December 29, 2006

Saddam’s execution

On the occasion of Saddam’s execution, I’ll quote Digby from earlier this evening:

I’m not going to lose any sleep over Saddam Hussein’s death but I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the US had behaved like a world leader and sent him to be tried in the International Criminal Court instead of having the “Iraqi government” (which clearly has no real legal system) stage a show trial and now execute him in the middle of a civil war.

Call me crazy but it just seems to me that would have shown that we care about the rule of law and removed the festering wound of Saddam from the workings of the current government which was bound to exacerbate the sectarian hatreds.

LATER: The Nation’s John Nichols looks at Human Rights Watch finding Saddam’s “a deeply flawed trial” that “marks a significant step away from respect for human rights and the rule of law in Iraq.”