Prosecution Asks for Death for Saddam

The BBC reports that the prosecution has asked for the death penalty for Saddam Hussein. While this is no surprise considering the extent of his offenses while president of Iraq it's legitimacy is in question. George W. Bush can say the interim government in Iraq has full sovereignty but everyone knows that's a joke. His own visit there last week disproved that assertion. The legitimacy of the government and, therefore, this court, is open to question. There are no laws in Iraq because there hasn't been a government to enact and enforce them. There is no system of justice there.

The decision to appoint judges and try Saddam and his cohorts was made anyway. The trial has been quite a farce. This is what happens when you try and establish democratic institutions where there is no history of them and suddenly expecting them to work. Trying Saddam is too serious an endeavor to do with a kangaroo court. The government in Baghdad is nothing more than our puppet. As evidence look where the Iraq government is: the Green Zone. They are located in the heavily fortified American sector of Baghdad. American fortified and American controlled.

I think it would have been better to wait until a legitimate Iraqi government was in place, laws enacted and a court system established. Trying Saddam then would be seen by the people of Iraq and Muslims worldwide as just. Sentencing him to death through this effort will only produce more hatred and resentment to the U.S.