The Saddam Hussein Trial Travesty, And The Euro

TIhe United States and the Bush administration in particular engineered the demonization of Hussein and it has a clear political interest in his conviction. Obviously, a fair trial of Hussein will be difficult to ensure - and critically important to the future of democracy in Iraq. This trial will write history, affect the course of violence around the world and have an impact on hopes for reconciliation within Iraq.

The one thing that has upset a lot of people is not the fact that Saddam Hussein got deposed, but the fact that he fought America's proxy war against Iran.

The press has proven incapable of even noting the obvious irony of the charges that Washington has chosen to level against its prisoner. Saddam Hussein is being tried for the deaths of 148 men and teenage boys in the predominantly Shia village of Dujail, following an assassination attempt against Hussein that occurred there in 1982, during the Iran-Iraq war.

For the Bush administration to try him for this crime-wreaking lethal vengeance against a rebellious population in wartime-underscores the hypocrisy and absurdity of the entire enterprise. Why is Bush not in the defendant's dock for precisely the same crime? What, after all, was the barbaric siege of Fallujah carried out by the U.S. military just a year ago? After the deaths of four American mercenaries in the city, Fallujah was targeted for a savage reprisal.

Another worrisome thing to consider is the real reason the U.S. went to war against Iraq was not weapons of mass destruction, but a simple economic one: euros. That's right. Not oil, (well, just in part) but euros. I have not had time to request permission for reprint, so I will lead you to the link to read it for yourself.