Free Republic

It is among the odder ironies of modern political life that the Fourth of July, a holiday set aside to celebrate American exceptionalism, has become an occasion to proclaim multicultural pieties. For a vivid demonstration of this tendency, look no further than the habit of our high-minded commentators to lecture every Independence Day that “we are a nation of immigrants.” In in its most extreme incarnation, this claim holds not only that America has been “a nation of immigrants from its very inception” – an observation equal parts true and misleading – but that any reflection on the American character...

Let us now praise the Iraqi legal system. Scorned by international watchdog organizations and self-credentialed legal minds since its establishment in 2003 as a newly independent institution, it has now done something that the international community’s premier courts have consistently failed to do: punished, in a reasonable timeframe, a mass murderer and delivered justice to his victims. Back in November, it may be recalled, Iraq's High Tribunal judged Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang for the 1982 massacre of 148 Shi’ites in the city of Dujail. Initial concerns about an interminable appeals process have...