By all intelligent accounts, the verdict and penalty against Saddam Hussein is the outcome of a show trial that should trouble not just anti-imperialists but liberal-minded people everywhere. While there’s no doubt that Saddam should have been tried, this event has been a farce, and it should have had nothing to do with the US administration. In fact, the USA (and UK) should also be on trial for unprovoked act of aggression that was the invasion of Iraq. The most credible study suggests that this has led to the deaths of 655,000 Iraqis. And of course the prior UN sanctions killed a million. A good critique of the show trial and context can be read here. And an excellent Robert Fisk comment on the hypocrisy of it all can be read in his article This was a guilty verdict on America as well.
UPDATE: John Pilger's latest column, Now let's charge Saddam's accomplices, brilliantly asks why Saddam should be alone in the dock. Surely, those who aided and abetted his crimes, and were accomplices in other great crimes committed against the Iraqi people, should be prosecuted, too.
