November 7, 2006

Sparing Saddam: Why Europe is Morally Unserious

By James Lewis
A general estimate is that Saddam Hussein killed 300,000 people, started two major wars (the first against Iran, costing a million lives, and the second against Kuwait, with perhaps 100,000 dead); according to the New York Times' latest zig—zag, he came within a year of producing a nuclear bomb that could have been used to kill additional millions, and ensured the survival of his tyranny for the foreseeable future.  For sheer sadistic mayhem, like routine rape and murder, there has been no worse regime than Saddam.  For the first time in human history, a mass—murdering tyrant on this scale has been caught, tried, and convicted in an open court of law. The people of Iraq and surrounding countries have been able to see him tried on television. Saddam has been sentenced to hang, according to Iraqi law, legitimized by the only elected government in the Arab Middle East. By any decent human standard this is an extraordinary victory for civilization over barbarism....(Read Full Article)