Review Haiku – The Decalogue
Posted on December 1, 2008
Polish film series
Musings on humanity
Find Ten Commandments
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Tagged with: 1988, 3 stars, Krzysztof KIESLOWSKI, movie review, poland, Review Haiku, sin, television, ten commandments
Executable file
Posted on December 30, 2006
It finally happened and Saddam Hussein has been executed. Stangely, I find myself having some conflicting feelings about this.
Saddam was not a nice man. Not by a long shot. He was a tin-pot dictator who ruled his country with a ruthlessness of Stalin. It wouldn’t take much to convince me he was guilty of the acts on which he stood accused.
In general, I support the death penalty in extreme cases, such as serial killers and mass-murderers, and Saddam was almost certainly guilty of the latter.
Where the conflicted feelings come from is that the trial lacked legitimacy. As soon as we were told he was captured, the outcome was inevitable. His execution was inevitable. It wasn’t inevitable because he was guilty, though he was probably that. It was inevitable because the trial could have no other outcome. The court and the trial existed for the sole purpose of finding Saddam (and co-conspirators) guilty. It was a kangaroo court. A show trial. It was meant to show that “justice” was served. It was meant to show that Saddam got his say before he was killed, and the people could feel good about killing him, because he had his chance in court and if he was found guilty, well too bad for him. That’s the breaks. However, in the end all it was was a show. It was a ceremony. I wouldn’t call it a trial. The trial started before Iraq even had a stable government. Hell, it barely has a stable government now.
The trial was run by the Iraqis and supported by the Coalition governments. However, since his trial started before they had a stable government, I wondered how they can charge him. They didn’t have laws. Without a government, there is no constitution and no laws. Without any laws to be broken, what’s the point of charging him.
Previously, Saddam was The Law. If he wanted someone arrested, they were. If wanted someone dead, they were. They might have been given a show trial, but with an outcome as inevitable as Saddam’s. All the Iraqis did was use Saddam’s own tricks against him. They dragged the trial out for years to give it an air of legitimacy, though the veridct was a forgone conclusion.
I think the trial was pointless for two reasons. Since the conclusion was inevtable, they could have saved the cost of the trial and executed him right away. Why bother with a trial at all? If they wanted Saddam to have a legitimate trial, they should have shipped him to The Hague before the International Criminal Court. I suspect the reason for that is because the US wouldn’t allow it, because the ICC doesn’t have the death penalty.
Anyway, he’s dead. I won’t mourn his passing. May God have mercy on his soul. May God have mercy on George Bush. May God have mercy on us all.
