Only a Wolf Can Devour a Wolf By Ismail Salami

Yet, is this the real Saddam Hussein? Will he be tried in a fair court? Is it another ruse to manipulate public opinion? Could it be a U.S. stratagem meant to ease the spate of aspersions raining down on them from all across the world every day? Is it not true that Saddam had many doubles? Could this man be one of them? These are all questions, which may occur to any inquisitive mind. After all, Saddam’s trial serves as the best diversion from the U.S. lies over weapons of destruction in Iraq.

According to reports, Saddam was no longer the same imperious figure who appeared on TV or in interviews. He was visibly nervous.

Saddam will remain in the physical custody of U.S. forces. What better hands could protect the monster than those of the United States?

He and eleven others are to be charged today. Among those to be handed over to the Iraqi interim government are former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz; Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, his secretary; Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's maternal half-brother; Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; and Aziz Salih Numan, Baath Party regional commander and head of the party militia.

There are three reasons, which justify Saddam Hussein’s trial:

(1) Crimes against humanity: He committed genocide in Halabja when he gassed more than 5000 Kurds. The gruesome carnage began before sunrise on Friday, the 17th of March, 1988. The town was bombarded more than twenty times by Iraqi warplanes with chemical and cluster bombs. Corpses littered the streets, piled up over one another. A large number of children were martyred on the spot by chemical weapons.

(2) Violations of the laws and customs of war: Saddam used chemical weapons against Iranian combatants and civilians, killing or wounding around 100,000 Iranians with nerve and mustard gases. Iraqis first used chemical weapons against Iranians in three major incidents in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. In 1984, Iraq became the first regime to use a nerve agent on the battlefield when it deployed tabun-filled aerial bombs. Tabun kills in minutes. Iraq also used mustard gas later on in the same war. In 1983, while Reagan was in office, the United States knew that Saddam was using chemical weapons almost daily but did not seem to care. Instead, Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld to the Middle East in order to restore diplomatic relations. By 1984, when Iraq started using tabun, the United States and Iraq had successfully restored diplomatic relations.

(3) War crimes that are against the 1949 Geneva Convention: Saddam Hussein breached the Convention through his actions in Kuwait and in the rural Iranian villages during the war with Iran. Saddam killed and abused Iranian POWs and ordered his troops to loot and plunder and rape.

In an ideal world, Saddam would stand trial and meet his doom. Saddam was created by the West, and he will eventually be eradicated by the West, for only a wolf can devour a wolf.

IS/HG

End

MNA