[Christian4Bush]

Hitchens bump

[razorgirl]

The problem with the Saddam trial is one of legitimacy, not of guilt. We want to showcase to the Muslim world the western-style system of justice, which includes presumption of innocence, no matter how unpopular the defendant.

It would have been much better to have had Saddam tried in the Hague, so that the world could see the evidence of torture and killing, and the trial wouldn't be going on in a war zone. Instead, the Iraqi court appears to be incompetent, fueling the image of a kangaroo court under an occupation force. This whole clumsy exercise threatens to generate some sympathy, particularly among Sunnis who are suffering the greatest losses after Saddam's overthrow.