[Cyrus]

"...because they lessen from day to day."

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Alice In Wonderland ... has left an indelible impression upon my memory.

[/ QUOTE ]We knew that already --- from the way you change the meaning of words as you go along. The Ann Coulter/Canadians-in-Vietnam thread was priceless.

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Saddam most assuredly is guilty; can anyone seriously doubt it?--hence the trial is indeed all for show purposes.

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To show what ? If you wanna show that Saddam lost and that the Ameircans won, then, yes, it's fair game. If you wanna send a political message, as you claim later on, then different rules apply.

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It is important for the Arab world to be shown exactly the extent of the crimes of Saddam, in part as a rebuff to Baathist ideology and to totalitarianism--the Arab world desperately needs to move away from such political models.

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The political message of the Saddam trial (at least, the way it has been set up so far) is plain and simple:

PRIMARY MESSAGE: We won, you lost, your leader goes on trial. We can do this because we stronger than yous.

SECONDARY MESSAGE: Your fearsome and might leaders are mere humans. They can be done away with! (Which, admittedly, is not a bad message as messages go! Nonetheless it is a limited message. Read on.)

But if the trial is not conducted in a way that will demonstrate to the Arab world the superiority of the western system of justice, a way that will (yes!) start with the presumption of innocence and then endeavor to ascertain guilt, then the main political message that should have been sent will not be sent. The opportunity will be lost.

The message of course should be: (Who cares about an individual, even if it's Saddam Hussein?) The superior political system is that of western democracy, where every person is free and, when in court, innocent until proven guilty.

And if this means that (even someone like) Saddam walks, then he walks.

...The notable (and amusing) fact in the indictment is that Saddam Hussein is accused for a very limited number of bad things. Nowhere in his list of alleged crimes will you find something that will make him start mouthing off about the role of the United States in Iraq's affairs and the connections of Saddam Hussein's regime with America. Heaven forbid.