Thursday, July 08, 2004
Saddam on Trial . . . and the U.S.?
The trial of Saddam Hussein has an additional drawback that I had not thought of. It seems that the lawyer for Saddam intends to connect as much of Hussein's crimes to the United States as he can. It is certainly true that we helped Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War. Whether we were complicit in the crimes of that war, such as the gassing of the Kurds or the murder of Shi'as, I do not know. The accusation has been made that we helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons. I certainly do not think that we were directly involved in planning or suggesting the attacks on civilians. But a clever lawyer can put together a story that will imply that we were. This will not help our image in Iraq or the Arab world. Ideally, it would have been better to have had an international court try Hussein and his court at some date after the shooting is over. But we wanted to let the Iraqis do what they wanted to do. Perhaps the people who should have thought first, once again did not think deeply enough about this.
As we learned in Afghanistan, the United States must be extremely careful when it decides to help others in violent conflicts. Perhaps we should think out some new rules for such situations, for they will arise again.
The trial of Saddam Hussein has an additional drawback that I had not thought of. It seems that the lawyer for Saddam intends to connect as much of Hussein's crimes to the United States as he can. It is certainly true that we helped Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War. Whether we were complicit in the crimes of that war, such as the gassing of the Kurds or the murder of Shi'as, I do not know. The accusation has been made that we helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons. I certainly do not think that we were directly involved in planning or suggesting the attacks on civilians. But a clever lawyer can put together a story that will imply that we were. This will not help our image in Iraq or the Arab world. Ideally, it would have been better to have had an international court try Hussein and his court at some date after the shooting is over. But we wanted to let the Iraqis do what they wanted to do. Perhaps the people who should have thought first, once again did not think deeply enough about this.
As we learned in Afghanistan, the United States must be extremely careful when it decides to help others in violent conflicts. Perhaps we should think out some new rules for such situations, for they will arise again.
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