Saddam\u2019s execution <\/p>\n \nToday\u2019s verdict in the first war crimes \n\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nIn his statement on the trial, President \n\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nBut this verdict in no way guarantees that Iraq will flourish as the democracy America and our \n\u00a0<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \nIt will be interesting to watch both the Saddam\u2019s execution cannot become the tableau against which anyone dares to proclaim \u201cMission Accomplished\u201d: it will rather be only the sad, and sadly unavoidable, end to an individual career of tyranny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c17-featured-writers"],"yoast_head":"\n
\ncannot become the tableau against which anyone dares to proclaim \u201cMission
\nAccomplished\u201d: it will rather be only the sad, and sadly unavoidable, end to an
\nindividual career of tyranny.<\/span><\/p>\n
\ntrial of Saddam Hussein was neither surprising nor unwarranted.\u00a0 <\/span>It was unsurprising because, despite whatever
\ngaffes the prosecution may have committed, the people of Iraq demanded
\nthat justice be done to the man who had tormented them for so long.\u00a0 <\/span>And it was warranted because the evidence is
\nclear that Saddam was responsible for the deaths of more than a hundred
\ncitizens of Dujail, in addition to probably hundreds of thousands of others,
\nIraqi and non-Iraqi, elsewhere.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nBush was, quite properly, careful to avoid giving the impression that he agreed
\neither with the verdict or with the death sentence it entails.\u00a0 <\/span>The President was right to point out that the
\nconclusion of Saddam\u2019s trial reflects well on the new Iraqi government and
\nenhances its claims to sovereignty.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\ncoalition of allies envision that it can become.\u00a0 <\/span>In all likelihood, the short-term effect of
\nthe verdict may well be the reverse: Ba\u2019athist loyalists and other insurgents
\nmay take advantage of the moment to step up their attacks against the new Iraqi
\ngovernment and coalition troops in the country.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\naftermath of the verdict in Iraq
\nand its effect on the mid-term elections and the debate over the war here at
\nhome.\u00a0 <\/span>Here\u2019s the danger: moments like
\ntoday\u2019s verdict and Saddam\u2019s execution, whenever it comes, have the potential
\nto tempt us into rosy thinking about the state of the conflict.\u00a0 <\/span>Saddam\u2019s absence from the scene may, over the
\nlong term, deprive insurgents of a symbolic rallying point, but it would be
\nfoolish to think that his death should automatically speed up the withdrawal of
\nUS troops from the country.\u00a0 <\/span>Saddam\u2019s
\nexecution cannot become the tableau against which anyone dares to proclaim
\n\u201cMission Accomplished\u201d: it will rather be only the sad, and sadly unavoidable,
\nend to an individual career of tyranny.\u00a0
\n<\/span>It is only a particularly vengeful, and in that way particularly
\nun-Christian, way of thinking that might suggest otherwise. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"