Just when you thought it was safe to cheer the capture of Saddam, Bill Safire comes along and ruins it.

Bill's a Nixon man, and therefore the Country Pundit likes him. Anyways, to the points:

Why did he not use his pistol to shoot it out with his captors or to kill himself? Because he is looking forward to the mother of all genocide trials, rivaling Nuremberg's and topping those of Eichmann and Milosevic. There, in the global spotlight, he can pose as the great Arab hero saving Islam from the Bushes and the Jews.

I don't know the mind of Saddam Hussein, but one wonders if he has in essence surrendered himself to his fate. By this I don't mean surrendering to objective justice, heavens no. I guess I'm more wondering if he thinks he'll ever get Iraq back again, or if he's figured it's time to break out Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory" after watching Young Guns II for inspiration.

Safire goes on for a little while longer, but closes with this gem:

We are not finished with this remorseless monster; Saddam will have his day in an Iraqi court. But so will the ghosts of poison-gassed Halabja and Iraqi children forced to clear minefields in Iran. The meticulous presentation of his offenses against humanity will demonstrate again that all that would have been necessary for the triumph of evil was for good people to do nothing.

I haven't made a final decision as to what the best use of Saddam Hussein would be, but as one of those pathetic individuals struggling through law school (And nowhere near the front of the class, either! --Ed.) I'd like to see him standing in a dock somewhere with a bill of indictment being read against him. Ideally this will be in the hands of a reconstituted Iraqi criminal justice system. Hopefully he'll be given as fair a trial as can be, in order to show the old coot how civilized nations go about the even-handed application of the rule of law, not of men.

¹ Setting aside for the moment the fact that those three words may be a contradiction in terms.

[Yes, this is posted late. I've had to write thirty-plus pages of pseudo-analytical legal text and take two exams in the last four days. Right now I'm happy to not be falling asleep on the keyboard.]

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Today's news that makes you want to lay the mantle of civilization down and go inflict some horrific levels of pain: Sources: Slain prosecutor was tortured.

Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Luna, age 38, was murdered probably early Thursday morning, and his body was found somewhere in Pennsylvania. His car was found idling in a creek, with Mr. Luna's remains stashed beneath it. Two snippets:

Sources said the killing was brutal. Torture wounds were found on his torso, and he had been stabbed as many as 36 times.

An autopsy conducted by a forensic pathologist found that Luna "died of fresh water drowning and multiple stab wounds of the neck and chest," Walp said.

Luna was alive but incapacitated when he was thrown in the water, Walp said.

Mr. Luna leaves behind a wife and two children.

I don't know all the facts of this case, nor do I have any personal connection to it. Nevertheless, I do not like it when law enforcement personnel are killed. If I had Richard Bay's speech to Helen Gamble on an old episode of The Practice, I'd probably be reading it now---the bottom line is that men and women who serve the law enforcement system are, in their own way, part of the thin veneer of civilization that divides us from the Iraq of Saddam Hussein. Any attack upon them probably in some way constitutes a move towards what Hussein's Iraq stands for.

I am, of course, angry and ranting about this, probably absent a lot of logical rationality, but at this point I don't care. It would be nice to be able to catch the responsible parties and inflict upon them the John "Without Remorse" Kelly hyperbaric treatment, following that up with a quick trip to the local mulching machine in the back yard, a la the last few minutes of Fargo. This is where we can learn from the Baathists: Insert the responsible party into the machine feet-first.

The Country Pundit is not pleased.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:36 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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