Saddam�s Trial � A Pantomime Long In The Making

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 11, 2005 -- Saddam Hussein is going on trial in the very near future. As brutal and sadistic as he was, his trial has nothing to do with the crimes he committed, but everything to do with whose interest he was deemed to be acting against. In any true system of justice many of those now baying for his blood should have been standing trial with him as accomplices to the fact. Such dishonour amongst thieves is as rare as it is unsightly. We can be sure that those in control of the proceedings will spare no attempt in covering their tracks. The criminals have taken over the court.

One of the main accusations against Saddam is the ghastly and despicable act of gassing Kurds in the village of Halabja. Over 5,000 men, women and children died because of that attack � and of course, he deserves to go to hell for that alone.

Yet, this is a very interesting and curious history, filled with duplicity, double standards and downright villainy on all sides.

The Ba�ath Party came to power in Iraq in 1963 as a result of a CIA engineered coup. This fatal act directly resulted in Saddam�s accession to power in the 1970s. The reason for the coup was exactly the same as the reason given for the coup ten years earlier in Iran. A local nationalist leader had the audacity to believe that he could nationalise the oil resources of his country.

Of course at that time the west could not allow such a thing to happen � so they befriended the Ba�athists. Although Iraq did eventually nationalise its oil, friendly relations with the west continued, and even blossomed as the earlier coup in Iran unravelled, and the oppressive regime of the Shah was replaced by that of the Ayatollah.

Saddam was feted. He became the anointed bulwark against the foaming mad-dog mullahs of Iran who dared to defy the west. Then the west went even further, goading Saddam into war against Iran, duly supplying him with some of the necessary weapons.

Despite the flow of arms from the western powers, Iranian superiority in manpower began to turn the tide of battle against Saddam�s Iraqis. That was when Saddam resorted to using poison gas against his enemies.

In the well-established discipline that is diplomatic deception, the western allies urged Saddam to avoid such dastardly strategies, while secretly maintaining his supply of the necessary ingredients. They even went beyond the call of duty, as western spy satellites provided Saddam�s troops with data on mass concentrations of Iranian troops.

The use of poison gas on the battlefield has always been most effective when used against massed troop concentrations.

The supply of weapons and intelligence did not stop there. As ludicrous as it may now sound given the furore over Iran and North Korea, Saddam was offered a nuclear reactor, courtesy of the French government. Only the Israelis complained � eventually bombing the Osirak reactor in 1981.

Then, in terms of the relationship with the west, things began to get a little confusing. There was an international furore over the gassing of Kurds in Halabja. How strange Saddam must have thought. The same people that provided him with much of his material, and who assisted its deployment against Iranians, were now upset that he did the same thing to Kurds who were in revolt over his rule. Even then, he was only following the example set by Churchill several decades earlier. As far as he was concerned, he had merely used the tried and tested method of putting down civilian uprisings in his country.

He brushed off the criticism and it even appeared that his stance was vindicated when the Reagan and successor Bush Administrations tried to blame the incident on the Iranians. Of course, no one was convinced of this ruse, but it did serve its purpose � support for Saddam at almost any cost.

So picture if you will the mindset of Saddam in July1990, just before the invasion of Kuwait. He had friends in the west that had previously cheered from the sidelines as he invaded Iran. They had not only ignored his use of poisoned gas, they had supplied much of the ingredients and the logistics, as well as making every effort to provide him with a diplomatic smokescreen.

At one time, Reagan had even spent his special envoy, a man by the name of Donald Rumsfeld, to make sure that everything was OK.

Just to give himself the peace of mind he needed before taking the plunge, Saddam would have looked around the world and probably determined that there was nothing about his regime that was unique in either its terror or its brutality.

Mobutu, the criminal in Zaire, another who came to power on the back of a 1960s CIA coup had enjoyed excellent relations with the west despite his well documented atrocities.

Suharto, another who rose to power in 1965 by that depressingly familiar theme � a western-engineered military coup, where incidentally over 800,000 people had died, was firmly ensconced in Indonesia. This was despite the fact that his forces had killed up to 100,000 people in the takeover of Portuguese East Timor in 1976. Having granted licenses to western mining interests to take advantage of Indonesia�s extensive natural resources, Suharto had effectively printed his own licence to kill.

In Guatemala, right-wing death squads were murdering people, poor Indians, by the tens of thousands. Yet, this particular genocide was committed in the name of freedom and democracy � and anti-communism in particular. As such, Guatemala remained a firm ally of the west.

Next door in Honduras, similar death squads were in operation, under the gaze of the US Ambassador to that country � John Negroponte. Yes, that is the same John Negroponte, who in the twisted morality only reserved for conquerors, was to be appointed interim US ruler of Iraq after Saddam�s downfall.

Dare I say it, but it was what we used to call back home swapping a black dog for a monkey � given that they both perform the same silly tricks.

Not only did Negroponte assist in human rights violations in Honduras, he enabled the country to be used as launching pad for the contras � a tyrannical group that inflicted murder and mayhem upon tens of thousands of people in Nicaragua.

If you were Saddam Hussein in 1990 you would have gathered your thoughts, taken a look around, and scoffed at the very notion that the meek would inherit the earth � and then invade Kuwait.

Hindsight they say is 20:20. We are all now aware that that was the mother of all indiscretions. If Saddam had been a student of history, he would have been able to predict the absolute folly of such a move. He would have known that the ultimate course of history is not determined by acts of omission or commission, criminal or otherwise. They are instead determined on the basis of whose interest is at risk.

If Saddam had been a student of history, he would have known that after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro actually visited Washington in the hope of renewing relations. He met with amongst other people Vice President Richard Nixon. Nixon was to famously remark that Castro was �na�ve� but not necessarily a Communist. When he left the US, the omens for improved US-Cuba relationships were looking good.

So, when did Castro become an enemy of the US?

It was when he decided to forcibly purchase the 75% of Cuban land owned by Americans. From that moment on, Castro was designated a threat to world peace.

The main problem was that Castro�s forced purchases were based on the taxable value of the acquired properties. Unfortunately for the large landowners, they had been caught in a trap of their own making and hoisted by their own petard. For years, they had kept the valuations of their land artificially low, greatly reducing their tax burden. It was good while it lasted.

However, the long and the short of this particular story is that Castro became US Public Enemy No 1, without as much as a minor massacre to his credit.

If Saddam had been a student of history he would have studied the example of Japan in the first half of the century, and maybe, if he had paid very careful attention, he might not have found himself in his current plight.

Starting in the early 1900s, Japan began the creation of what euphemistically became known as the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japan�s motivation was simple � they were merely following the example of the western powers. The French controlled Indo-China, the British were in India, the Dutch in Indonesia, and the Americans in the Philippines. Even Portugal got into the act with its own little piece of China � Macao.

As the first Asian country to industrialise, the Japanese decided to follow their western exemplars and adopt imperialism as a national pastime.

In the early days of this particular foray, things went well. Japan appeared to have relatively limited territorial ambitions, and by World War I it was a valuable ally to the west � a bulwark against both Russian and German influence in the region. The Japanese considered themselves so much a part of the western zeitgeist, that western fashions became the order of the day in Tokyo.

Unfortunately, the Japanese failed to realise that all this was OK as long as the arrangement suited the west. As Japan became more influential in Asia, the west became less accommodating. The Japanese were at first confused � all they had done was slavishly copy their western counterparts. Then the penny finally dropped. Western policy was largely based on �do as I say but not as I do, especially when what you do affects my interests�.

However, undeterred in their ambitions and in no mood to rollover, Japanese attitudes towards the west changed and the militarists gained the ascendancy. When Japan�s desire for the petroleum reserves of the Dutch East Indies literally poured oil over the troubled waters of the Pacific, there was an inevitable cataclysm.

The rest as they say is history � Japan fought against the western allies in World War II, and lost everything.

Saddam was hardly more brutal or sadistic than some of his contemporaries. In fact, many were much worse. Moreover, those that aided and to some extent even inspired his crimes were also responsible for the perpetuation of even larger crimes elsewhere on our planet. Yet, this month, he will stand alone to face the judgement of those that by any possible sense of justice have far more blood on their hands than he does.


Jonathan Ledwidge is the author of the book "A Mannequin for President" - www.amannequinforpresident.com

More information can be found online at http://www.amannequinforpresident.com

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