The President's praise of fair trials and the rule of law by Glenn Greenwald

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The President's praise of fair trials and the rule of law
By Glenn Greenwald
President Bush today hailed the critical importance of fair trials and the rule of law . . . . in Iraq:


"Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial -- the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime.

Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule. It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. This would not have been possible without the Iraqi people's determination to create a society governed by the rule of law.

The President is certainly right that it is is a good thing that Saddam Hussein was given a trial, represented by lawyers, with an opportunity to contest his guilt, before being deemed to be guilty. That is how civilized countries function, by definition. In fact, allowing people fair trials before treating them as Guilty is one of the handful of defining attributes -- one could even say (as the American Founders did) a prerequisite -- for countries to avoid tyranny.

That is why it is so reprehensible and inexpressibly tragic that the Bush administration continues to claim -- and aggressively exercise -- the power to imprison and punish people without even a pretense or fraction of the due process that Saddam Hussein enjoyed. The Bush administration believes that it has the power to imprison whomever it wants, for as long as it wants, without even giving them access to the outside world, let alone "a fair trial." The power which it claims -- which it has seized -- extends not only to foreign nationals but legal residents and even its own citizens.

..........SNIP"

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/12/presidents-praise-of-fair-trials-and.html

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1. there was no trial. there was only the impression of one

I guess if you want to call that fair, but I don't. Fair would have been airing out all the nasty facts that BushCo would rather leave buried, IMO.

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2. Fair to the world would have been to air out all the stories. Fair to the

150 murdered by Saddam was the trial he had.Death Penalty always wrong. More fair if Iraqis had a truth and reconcilliation thing. As well as ongoing trials about all that Saddam did. But then those trials would take a decade..and that isn't how to move a country along. If you can call mayhem and madness and IEDs a country. Fair to Iraqis would be to do something to end the current status quo. As to the death penaly..there are people on death row in Iraq who murdered only 3 people. Fair would be to talk also about the 90 executed already in Iraq instead of just Saddam Hussein - because nobody was worse than him. And all that Rummy and Reagan and Bush Sr. did with Saddam is lost forever..which is one of the reasons why Cheney & Rummy wanted into Iraq so badly...legacy. They own their own legacy again.. but I somehow doubt it will be forever. American Archives will tell the true tale some day in the future.

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3. what does Saddam have to do with the current mayhem/madness/IED?

His 'trial' and subsequent expedited execution will do nothing -- not one thing -- to calm the violence there, and will, in fact, probably make it worse.


Fair to Iraqis would be for the US military to get the hell out of their country.

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4. I agree that the US leaving would calm things down.