The Daily Background

Earlier this month I asked if it was merely a coincidence that Saddam Hussein was scheduled to be convicted and sentenced by the tribunal set up whether or not he is guilty of crimes against humanity– just two days before our midterm elections. Republicans would no doubt have a field day when he was found guilty and say that justice has been served and that Iraq can now move forward together.

This is of course utter bullshit. While there was an initial interest in the trial among ordinary Iraqis, most now aren’t paying attention and don’t care about its outcome.

This stems from two reasons; firstly that their everyday lives are extremely difficult right now (being in a civil war right now), and whether or not he is found guilty has no impact on them. There’s a lot more things to be concerned about, like where their next paycheck is coming from and whether or not their daughter is going to be shot down in the street on her way to school in a random act of violence.

Secondly, many Iraqis view the special tribunal set up to judge Hussein as somewhat illegitimate and inconsistent with traditional Iraqi law (which is based more on French law than anything else- a remnant of colonial times), and feel that the trial is essentially a western sideshow.

Now the primary prosecutor in the case has announced that the sentencing date(which was determined weeks ago) may be delayed until after our elections.

A guilty verdict could reflect positively on Bush as a vindication of his policy to overthrow Saddam in 2003. The former Iraqi president is also on trial separately on charges of genocide against the country’s ethnic Kurds in the late 1980s.

U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad denied Washington had any say over the timing of the verdict or the court’s decisions, saying the American role was limited to logistics and security.

Several lawyers associated with the trial have been assassinated, as well as relatives of those involved with the trial. In fact, Associated Press reports that Hussein’s head lawyer “warned a death sentence against [Saddam] would plunge Iraq into a “full scale civil war and allow Iran to take over Iraq and will have dire consequences for the stability” of the region.”

Of course, that is to be taken with a grain (or more) of salt considering the source (one of Saddam’s lawyers), but considering the current state of affairs in Iraq, it may not be so outlandish after all.

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog