Friday, December 26, 2003

The Trial and The End

The desire to drag the issue of how to treat and try Saddam into the muck of patriotism, support of the troops, and SH's 'evil' is overwhelming, I know. But all of that simply politicizes the issue, to no useful end.

It is absolutely shameful that the people who are supposed to be faithfully executing the laws of our nation are instead forthrightly breaking them because it is momentarily popular to do so. The Geneva Conventions are not just international laws, they are OUR laws.

Giving in to the desire for revenge and revilement of our enemy feels mighty sweet. Makes us feel righteous and powerful. I bet there would have been a lot of support for just lopping the heads of every Nazi and Jap bastard we caught after WWII. But history's judgement would have been harsh, and rightfully so.

The measure of a civilized people is not obeyance of the law when it is easy, but when it's hardest. We are failing that test, and I am disgusted by that failure, as is most of the world and a great many Americans, I am happy to report.

There are only two issues here: Saddam should not be subjected to interrogation or torture, and neither the US nor Iraq should try Saddam. Already Rumfeld has so much as said that if Saddam was abetting attacks on US forces he would be, and Military Intelligence conveniently annouced today that they find that he did. They claim is culpable for the deaths of 200 troops. It is only too clear that Saddam will be tortured or cohersively interrogated, and that he cannot get a full, fair, and open trial from either the US or the Iraqi puppet government. He has already been subjected to publicity and ridicule of the very sort which Rumsfled complained of when American soldiers were taken prisoner. Apparently, there enough standards for everyone, and so everyone gets his own.

For the sake of historical accuracy and the healing of the Iraqi people, which may only begin with the truth, Saddam must be given due process. Instead, his trial will turn into a show trial mockery of justice that will reflect poorly on America, set poor precedents for the future behavior of nations, and leave thousands of greiving Iraqis in the dark with thier grief. Justice for Saddam is not for his sake, it is for ours and theirs. Honor is a gift a man gives himself, so too with nations. Victims only heal when the world can hear their story, so too with Iraq. We musn't allow the Bush Administration to spare themselves, and us, the shame of complicity with evil.

We are throwing away our honor and the respect of the world because a hick President and his draft-dodging, pollyanna Administration think they can wring a few points out of it at the polls. I find it the very height of irony that ignorant blowhards, whose knee-jerk belligerence is taken for love of country, think that what these people are doing is some sort of patriotism; they are in fact shitting on our flag as ignorant citizens applaud their shameful performance. The only legacy this behavior will leave is surety in the minds of the world that Americans are no longer people of honor and moral vision, but rather children let loose with all the power in the world, but lacking the wisdom to wield it.

Every day I grow more ashamed of what fear has made of some of my fellow citizens. Groveling snots willing to trade their freedom and self-respect for empty promises of safety in a dangerous world. Living is a risk, no government can change that fact. People throwing away their freedoms to obtain empty reassurances would be of no concern to me, except that they cannot rid themselves of their freedom or their integrity without stripping me of mine.

So to those of you who are willing to make that trade, (and from the comments I get I know a few of you come here) those who are supporting this trainwreck of a President even in the face of incontrovertable evidence that he lied to us all, spent our fortunes like a partyboy with a trust fund, and treated the Presidency like his personal legacy, not an honor or a sacred trust, I say grow the hell up. You have been endulging in W's fantasy world for too long now. Like a child looking for limits W has swept this country from surplus into deficit, from prosperity into despair, from peace into war, from unity at the tragedy of 9/11 into bitter division. History will record him as the worst President this nation ever had the misfortune to be swindled by. The damage he's done will take a generation to erase.

If you do love this country, it's time face facts; playtime is over.

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