Justice in Baghdad

The Nuremberg trials were clearly ‘victor’s justice,’ yet it was, in retrospect, a huge success, writes Anne Applebaum (WP).

“If it achieved nothing else, Nuremberg laid out for the German people, and for the world, the true nature of the Nazi system.” The Iraqi Special Tribunal is potentially weaker and more easily manipulated than the Nuremberg court," she says, but:

“In the end, it is by the quality of that evidence, and the clarity with which it is conveyed, that this trial should be judged. The result is irrelevant: Quite frankly, it doesn't matter whether Saddam Hussein is drawn and quartered, exiled to Pyongyang, or left to rot in a Baghdad prison. No punishment could make up for the thousands he killed, or for the terror he inflicted on his country.”

“But if his Sunni countrymen learn what he did to Shiites and Kurds, if the Shiites and Kurds learn what he did to Sunnis, if Iraqis come to realize that his system of totalitarian terror damaged them all, and if others in the Middle East learn that dictatorships can be overthrown, then the trial will have served its purpose. That, and not an arbitrary standard of international law, is how the success of this unusual tribunal should be measured.”

Hat Tip to Judith, who is also linking to this article: Don't hurry over Saddam. The whole Arab world needs to watch this trial.

Finally, Judith's own well directed kick:

“If you doubt the necessity of instilling such fear and trembling into their hearts just read about the treatment meted out by Mubarak and Mubarak Fills to the recently "elected" Mubarak will to Ayman Nour, the man who dared challenge their monopoly of power, by garnering 7% of the presidential vote. Ironically, rather than chastise the Egyptian administration, Michael Slackman seems to jeer Nour: "Mubarak Foe, Bravado Gone, Feels Smeared."

"Shameless.”