It took Iraq’s ‘judicial system’ close to 30 months to prepare the prosecution of the fallen despot, whose trial has now entered its tenth month.
One would have thought that mass graves, mass executions, crimes against humanity and attempted genocide were self-evident proofs that made perfect material for an open-and-shut case.
The case for expediting indictment is even stronger as dictators do not have the luxury of placing the blame on their aides and subordinates. They govern on their own and at their own risk and peril. They do not like the checks-and-balances feature of government. In most cases they have to govern unruly countries because that’s where their skills are most needed and appreciated.
In this loathsome form of governance, even the saintly breed turn into criminal tyrants as they unavoidably and repeatedly find themselves in quandaries where crime would be the ‘radical’ way out. Crime and the job are in their case inextricably bound together.
Therefore, whether the dictator hangs or is reconditioned into a poet should not be the issue. Rather, countries that nurture, accommodate or condone dictatorships should stand trial for crimes committed by their protégés. After all, eradicating dictatorship as a form of government is a magnificent objective, whereas instigating the hanging of one dictator certainly isn’t.
