On the death penalty for Saddam

[sui generis]

While I'm not opposed to the death penalty when there is incontrovertible evidence and a voluntary confession, I disagree that we should put political leaders to death no matter how heinous the crime or how much we hate them.

If they know that they will inevitably be executed, there is NO REASON ever for them to cooperate with information that could be very important to the survivors of their regimes - that's the first thing, and the other one is the precedent.

So George Bush, be prepared that in some future time, like Pinochet, you may lose your presidential immunity and your freedom. Some day you may yourself face torture and the death penalty under a similar war crimes tribunal, and as much as that thought gives me a grim inhuman joy, I would on principle also be opposed to that, regardless of your level of guilt through either wilfull evil or just plain incompetence.

Over 2000 of the idealistic, dutiful children of this nation have died for your lies, most of them in agony and horror that most of us have a hard time imagining. Tens of thousands more have been injured in their bodies, and their souls, to return to live here with hollow eyes, bitterness, and often in poverty from medical bills that you won't pay.

Countless tens of thousands of civilians, families, children, bystanders and participants in the reconstruction of their country have been murdered by our policies and soldiers and paid mercenaries in Iraq. You have actually destabilized the region and endangered not just Americans abroad but westerners in every country all over this tiny planet. You have caused a thousandfold increase in al qaeda enrollment, and you have made America a lightning rod for misguided extremists to focus their hatred upon, and so the future deaths of Americans and humans the world over rests on your shoulders too. You are utterly indistinguishable from the notable political "monsters" of history you claim to despise, that you are busy trying to "smoke out" of their hidey holes.

You claim to deliver "democracy" when all that we can possibly deliver to an islamic country, EVER, is an islamic republic where the sharia and fatwa trumps human civil rights and these vaunted precious "freedoms" at the pronouncement of any mullah at any time anywhere.

You sent our children to die to create an islamic republic that guarantees NO CIVIL RIGHTS to anyone, voted in through a democratic process, and you call that a democracy.

I have a question for you Condoleeza Rice, for you George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and crew. I have a question for each of you disgusting humans who carry a W sticker on their car or claim support for this president and for this war:

Would you give your life for this war? Would you, answer yes or no, GIVE YOUR FUCKING LIFE FOR THIS WAR! Would you step in front of a bullet in Iraq to save an American soldier? Would you step in front of a bullet to save an Iraqi civilian?

You fucking cowards.