If the American-controlled government of Iraq executes former dictator Saddam Hussein, it will add to the growing evidence that American behavior in Iraq has been illegal and even criminal in nature.
But it will also send a chilling message to any government that seeks to control its own destiny that if they cross the United States, they could become victims of an international rule violated by America.
The kangaroo court in Iraq has sentenced Saddam to death. Everyone knew they would convict him and sentence him to death because not only was he denied a fair trial, the entire court process was orchestrated.
At issue is whether or not as a leader of a country, Saddam had the right to execute individuals engaged in sedition against his regime, which at one time was backed by the United States.
Saddam never denied executing the insurgents who tried to topple his government, claiming he had that right. He may well be guilty of criminal behavior, but the failure to prosecute those crimes legally and under international rules of law will only expose American hypocrisies.
Under this phony, unjust and illegal criminal court system in occupied Baghdad, finding Saddam guilty of committing war crimes would also justify prosecuting President George W. Bush, disgraced former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney for war crimes too.
They stand guilty, based on the same principles bastardized by the US-controlled kangaroo court of the current Iraqi regime, of the crimes of American soldiers who have engaged in the murder of innocent Iraqis during this illegal war.
American soldiers are being prosecuted in some rare instances where the weight of the evidence is so overwhelming that the American occupatiers cannot deny those charges. But rather than prosecuting the soldiers, Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney should face court-martial.
One must not forget that the illegal invasion of Iraq began when Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney ordered the murder of members of Saddam’s family on March 19, 2003. His two sons, grandson and other relatives were killed in an unprovoked air strike by American fighter jets ordered by the guilty American trio.
This scenario of prosecuting Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney for war crimes in Iraq is not that far-fetched and goes far beyond political rhetoric.
The Bush administration violated the international rule of law and engaged in a war that was premeditated and based on a foundation of intentional lies. Even if we pretend Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney were basically ignorant of the truth and believed the lies — which is a woeful stretch of the imagination — ignorance is not a defense in a crime.
The trial itself has been a sham. Several of Saddam’s defense attorneys were murdered.
A judge who might have ruled against the death penalty was capriciously and illegal removed from the court by the American-controlled government.
The reason they want to rush to execute Saddam is so that Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney can protect themselves, hoping that the death of an unpopular dictator the US helped arm and train might disappear after they leave office.
There is also an underlying message in the dictate of the American-controlled court ruling that the Arab and Islamic worlds should carefully examine. It is a simple and dangerous message.
If the United States can murder the leader of another nation, regardless of how unpopular he might have been, the reality is that the United States can, at any time, invade any of the other Arab and Muslim countries, too.
And, they can murder the individuals they accuse of crimes without ever prosecuting those fabricated or exaggerated accusations in a court of law.
If Bush can murder Saddam, then he has the power to assassinate the leader of any nation, a practice that was abandoned years ago and only revived under this administration.
Remember, past American governments have lied to start other wars, including in Vietnam with the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
They engaged and conspired in the murder of democratically elected leaders including in Iran where they backed the Shah of Iran and organized a coup to replace a democratically elected leader who was critical of American foreign policy.
The American-anointed Shah went on to become one of the most ruthless murderers of our time, killing, imprisoning and torturing thousands of Iranian civilians, all while the United States looked the other way.
The CIA was engaged in a plan to murder Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende. Despite the evidence, the CIA has argued that it decommissioned the murder plot before Allende killed himself.
The list of war crimes by the United States exceeds the hyped up charges against Saddam.
Forget about the international violations of laws being committed by American soldiers who have been ordered to ignore the Fourth Geneva Convention, a practice that might come to haunt American soldiers who might be captured by an enemy in some future war.
The very torture justified against the thousands of prisoners being held in American prisons will be used against our own soldiers. The precedent has been set by Bush, and that precedent also bolsters a war crimes prosecution against the Bush administration.
Saddam’s life should be spared and he should only be put on trial before the International Criminal Court at The Hague. That court is the only international judicial body that has jurisdiction over heads of state. The Hague is where war crimes were properly prosecuted against Slobodan Milosevic and others.
But Bush knows that if the case of Saddam were to go to The Hague, he might be acquitted of the trumped up political charges, and instead, war crimes charges could easily be brought against Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney.
That fear is what is driving an otherwise constitutional American democracy to flee the umbrella of the international rule of law, which will never go away and will one day return to haunt this country.
In the end, in executing Saddam, President Bush will be murdering international justice and making an unprecedented mockery of the international rule of law.
