Hussein trial reflects badly on the U.S.
Re “Hussein Tells Iraq to Unite Against U.S.,” March 16
Saddam Hussein and his companions should have been tried before an international court. But an international court would need to have tried him on charges of waging aggressive war against Iran and Kuwait and pursuing a policy of genocide against the Kurds. Unfortunately for the United States, doing this would have brought up all sorts of implicative history from the days when the United States and Hussein were effectively allies; days when the United States turned a blind eye to the wars and the genocide and aided Hussein at every turn.
Therefore, from Washington’s point of view, he had to be tried in an Iraqi court. Given the incompetence of the Iraqi regime created by the occupation forces (which makes it illegal), the spectacle unfolding before our eyes in the courtroom in Baghdad, chaotic and ludicrous at the same time, then became inevitable.
No doubt the judges will find Hussein guilty and hang him. But the court is accomplishing the improbable feat of turning this monster of a man into a hero and a martyr in the eyes of many people across the Arab world, even in Iraq itself.
Yet another example of the incompetence and amorality of the Bush regime.
FRANK P. BELCASTRO
Dubuque, Iowa
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