{"id":286,"date":"2007-01-02T07:03:02","date_gmt":"2007-01-02T13:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/2007\/01\/02\/meme-saddam-was-gypped\/"},"modified":"2007-01-02T07:03:02","modified_gmt":"2007-01-02T13:03:02","slug":"meme-saddam-was-gypped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=286","title":{"rendered":"Meme: Saddam Was Gypped!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a new parlor game.<\/p>\n

Here’s what you do:\u00a0 When reading a Strib editorial, try to guess which overwrought hamster is doing the writing.\u00a0 Different editorial writers, like different species of deer, leave different clues where they’ve been grazing.\u00a0 The key is to figure out which one dropped this pile…<\/p>\n

…in this case, “supporting” the growing meme<\/a> that Hussein’s execution was unjust because his trial was “unfair”.<\/p>\n

Saddam Hussein has been executed. Friday evening, U.S. authorities transfered the fallen dictator to the custody of the Iraqi government, which then hung him. It is an ambiguous moment:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Self-righteous, morally-blind equivocating?\u00a0 That smells like Boyd…<\/p>\n

I’d urge the writer to ask the people of Dearborn, or Mosul, or the marshes of southern Iraq, exactly how “ambiguous” the trial was.<\/p>\n

\u2022 While Saddams crimes against humanity cannot be denied, neither can his trials fundamental unfairness. Numerous international rights groups followed his journey through what passes for an Iraqi court system and found the proceedings deeply flawed. The verdict was just, but in legal affairs, how a verdict is reached matters a lot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s dumb enough to be Kate Perry.<\/p>\n

No, there’s a point hidden in there – along with a glob of reeking hypocrisy.\u00a0 It is important for the Iraqis to have a valid court system to build a viable nation; it’s through such a system (and the means to enforce the laws), among other things, that Iraq will finally emerge from its current nightmare.<\/p>\n

But the show and tell of an elaborate civil trial was more than Saddam deserved – and there is ample precedent, when dealing with tyrants, for skipping the entire charade.\u00a0 Douglas MacArthur held courts-martial for Japan’s mass-murderers and war criminals – people with, individually, less blood on their hands than Saddam – and excecuted dozens, without harming Japanese society one iota.\u00a0 Ditto Germany, although Nuremberg was slathered with civil-court decorations.<\/p>\n

A military court-martial, or a summary court of Iraqis, could have tried and killed Hussein without ceremony, and the world – and Iraq – would have been better off for it.\u00a0 And Iraq’s justice system would have suffered not one jot.<\/p>\n

Its the difference between an assassination of a thug and the execution of a war criminal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When Ed showed me the footage of the blow-dried anchorbot in Orlando calling the execution an “assassination”<\/a> over the weekend, I thought it was an isolated instance of a dolt in a $1000 suit transposing words under the heat of the set lights.<\/p>\n

But I’m wondering if this isnt’ the latest shrieking point issues from loony-left central – that we’re agents of tyranny, ourselves, because Hussein – a mass-murderer – didn’t have the same chance to get off on a technicality or perversion of justice that OJ Simpson did.<\/p>\n

To that end, there are longstanding international norms for how charges of crimes against humanity are to be prosecuted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Crushing ignorance of history?\u00a0 Could be Nick Coleman]<\/p>\n

Yes, there are;\u00a0 military tribunals and quick executions.<\/p>\n

To claim otherwise is…<\/p>\n

…well, the province of Strib editorial writers.<\/p>\n

Saddams trial did not meet those norms. Amnesty Internationals Malcolm Smart had it about right<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perfect is the enemy of good enough.<\/p>\n

And while the Strib didnt’ see fit to mention it to their readers (a Jim Boyd hallmark), Amnesty International tends to oppose capital punishment first, and worry about petty moral issues like guilt later.<\/p>\n

Amnesty came down on the side of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a killer for whom there is really no defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a new parlor game. Here’s what you do:\u00a0 When reading a Strib editorial, try to guess which overwrought hamster is doing the writing.\u00a0 Different editorial writers, like different species of deer, leave different clues where they’ve been grazing.\u00a0 The key is to figure out which one dropped this pile… …in this case, “supporting” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}