Alphecca

Charges Against Hussein

Saddam Hussein will not stand trial until -- probably -- 2005. He made an appearance yesterday before the new Iraqi Court and was as defiant as ever. From the AP:

A defiant Saddam Hussein rejected charges of war crimes and genocide against him in a court appearance Thursday, telling a judge "this is all theater, the real criminal is Bush," according to a reporter in an official media pool.

Saddam's hands were cuffed when he was brought to the court but the shackles were removed for the arraignment, which lasted about 30 minutes.

"I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," Saddam said, according to the CNN reporter.

In his first public appearance since he was captured seven months ago, Saddam refused to sign a list of charges against him and questioned the court's jurisdiction, according to a CNN reporter who was in the courtroom as part of a pool arrangement. He defended the invasion of Kuwait, saying Saddam said he invaded Kuwait "for the Iraqi people."

The charges will be laid out later today and as these are made public, one of two things will happen. The left will, of course, simply shrug them off and claim this is all scripted by America.

Or, hopefully, the average American who possesses far more intelligence will digest these accusations and it might actually increase support for President Bush. Once they hear (assuming the press does at least a modicum of its job) the detailed crimes Hussein has committed, they might say, "Okay, we didn't find WMD but thank God we went in and put an end to such a reign of terror against a helpless people." They might think, "Why didn't we put a stop to it before?" There might even be a feeling of some pride that The Coalition liberated the Iraqi people.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out this Summer. Of course, if the "press" glosses over the charges, just mentioning in passing "genocide, gassings, tortures" without really going into the shocking details, that will be a factor too. They might decide that only transgressions of a much lesser sort by our troops in one prison are the only things worth detailing and showing pictures of. That would be typical.