Human Rights Watch has released a 97 page report stating that Saddam Hussein's trial was "fundamentally unfair."
Well, no duh, Sherlock.
Let's see if I can quite come up with the appropriate analogy...
How about this: Suppose, just suppose, that right in the middle of, say, the Superbowl, some deranged whackjob wandered out to the fifty yard line, clubbed down a couple of cheerleaders, and then proceeded to eat the brains of the NFC team's quarterback, right there on live TeeVee and in front of 50,000 fans. What would we do?
We would put him on trial.
Why? Because there was any doubt about what he did? No, we're all pretty sure that we saw what we saw. We'd put him on trial because we try to act like a civilized nation with that whole "rule of law" thing going on, and putting people on trial before you hang them is what civilized nations do, even when you know good and damn well what the outcome of that trial is going to be.
So there you go, Human Rights Watch: Saddam got his circus of a trial, despite being caught with a clubbed cheerleader in his hands and quarterback brains dribbling down his chin. Happy? No? Tough.
Let us hope that the inevitable (and righteous) denouement of this farce doesn't drag out as long as the first part.
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4 comments:
Denouement?, we haven't even seen the rising action yet. I am greatly anticipating the climax, though, as I'm certain that the fecal matter will be impacting the fan when it does.
We're just getting this thing on a roll.
It's going to be interesting. I know we don't have much pull with the UN, but you think President Clinton can broker him a pardon of some sort? Maybe a nice cozy retirement set-up in the Canary Islands or some such.
phlegmfatale,
I wish I could say that I thought that was impossible, or at least that if it were possible that the person in question would have to live out his days right here in the good ole USA. A quickie mart in the deep South would be just about right. Somewhere the lynch mobs can get to him easily.
We might put the fifty yard line zombie on trial, but hopefully once he was in jail waiting for it there wouldn't be mystery “leaks” from a “deep throat” the DA's office with the express purpose of keeping the public focused on the upcoming trial (at the very least, this crap is darn close to tampering with the jury pool). Although allowing the press and public to attend is very important, let's hope the judge keeps the live, daily Court TV coverage out of the courtroom, even if it means that the judge later does not get to appear on Oprah, and his name never gets to become a Trivial Pursuit question. Finally, let's hope the prosecutors don't play any games with the evidence and “accidentally” discover a bunch of stuff, (that should have been shared with the defense before the trial), mere days before teh fifty yard line zombie is set to be put down on closed circuit TV.
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