Volume II. No. 55
 07-01-04
 Saddam In Court
 author: Vance Cureton
 © Copyright 2004
 

 There he was in court today for the first time. The infamous "Butcher of 
 Baghdad" himself. His appearance in front of a judge broadcast - via tape 
 delay - around the world. The very coward who had been too afraid to 
 take his own life, thus providing his adversaries this fortuitous opportunity 
 to humiliate him in public. 

 And to market his defeat for their own political gain.

 But this is not sympathy. Far from it. Saddam deserves all that is coming 
 to him. Although a bit cleaned up, this thin, hollowed-eyed Saddam Hussein 
 is much removed from the boastful murderer who rejoiced in ordering the 
 deaths of thousands of Kurds by poison gas. The same man who had 
 wrongfully invaded Kuwait and started the military conflict that needlessly 
 cost so many innocent lives. The man who throughout his reign as Iraqi's 
 leader had his political enemies - and sometimes their entire families - 
 executed on trumped up charges. And later buried in anonymous graves.

 All of this an indignity in Muslim culture as it would be in any.

 Such atrocities were not an unusual occurence during Saddam's frightful 
 20 plus years in power. That he is even allowed a day in court is an outrage.

 But there are many doubters in the Arab media, outlets such as Al Jazeera, 
 give airtime to indignant Muslim voices who decry this new Iraqi jurisprudence 
 as false and illegitimate. The problem in their eyes is that the current Iraqi 
 government has the taint of the occupiers upon everything that they attempt. 
 But will this cynical attitude toward the new political structures in Iraq
 change once elections are held? 

 Should that day ever actually arrive.

 All the heads of state in such places as Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Saudi Arabia 
 must regard Saddam in chains as a most bittersweet occurrence. This man 
 who was a threat to the stability of the entire region, was afterall -- one of 
 them. And their governments without even the threat of any invading armies, 
 are in many ways less secure than Saddam's was before the first American
 troops set foot in the desert.

 Saddam in court is an indication that the old regime is up. A new threat 
 has arrived in the "Fertile Crescent." And it is just that -- a threat. It is small. 
 It is nascent. It is at this point all but powerless. But it is there. And it is not 
 the wicked Al Qaeda. 

 The new threat is a little something called democracy. And with Saddam's 
 quick fall - no matter the unjustness of the "occupation." The people in Iraq 
 have won a small but significant victory.{ paid for in American blood }

 For many traditionalists in the Middle East who revere only the old ways
 of doing things. Saddam's day in court, was hardly good news.
 

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