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I just escaped a horrendous death by suffocation under the simultaneous assault of surprise, of a gulp of Hawaiian Hazelnut coffee sent to me by a Texas Rose (don't ask), and of Susan Sachs in the New York Times (requires free registration).But of course, Surprise Suzy is the main responsible, for publishing things like that in the NYT without warning:
Iraqis Seek Justice, or Vengeance, for Victims of the Killing FieldsCome again Susan? (Oh yes, come ag... Sorry) Are you positive about that?
(...)
Six months after President Bush declared that major combat was over, countless problems crowd in on Iraqis, not least unemployment and the absence of security. But nothing seems to preoccupy them quite as much as the urge to settle accounts with the old government.
Well, I was under the impression, judging by the barking of your colleagues on both sides of the pond - particularly the noise coming from the weasels' bank - that the Iraqis were squarely united in a fervid guerilla to expel the Great Imperialist Satan from
Yet you're telling me, surprising Suzy, that in fact, the Iraqis... How to put that... Don't mind?
I'm impressed Susan, but just keep your panties on for now sweetheart, let's see where this leads us:
Suspected mass graves continue to come to light, replenishing the stores of grief and anger. Aided by forensic specialists and satellite imagery, American legal experts in Baghdad say they have found 262 sites that may contain multiple human remains.A bit louder sweetie please. Nobody's listening, particularly in France.
While there is no official tally of vigilante actions, accounts from the police and monitoring groups suggest that perhaps several hundred former Baath Party officials have been killed since the fall of President Hussein's government.Interesting. Particularly considering the French Liberation/Epuration's summary executions galore, after only 4 years of Occupation/Collaboration, and a bit of Resistance® at the end.
Yet there has been no orgy of bloodshed as was feared, given the scale of state-sponsored killings and expulsions that Iraqis say they have suffered in the last 25 years.
Looks like the 2003 Baghdadi has more dignity than the 1944 Parisian.
Or maybe...
Iraqis have mostly shown a willingness to set aside immediate vengeance for the relentless pursuit of justice.... Maybe the Iraqis are simply more civilized than the French?
(...)
many people appear to have focused their energies on assembling, case by case, a damning indictment of the ousted government. The existing legal system is already groaning under the weight of demands.
(...)
Civil and criminal courts are trying to process individual lawsuits filed against Mr. Hussein and his coterie, while thousands more cases of political repression are being amassed by groups of survivors and political parties. (...)Among the dozens of citizens' groups registered with the American-led occupation administration(sick, I mean "sic"), a vast majority say they are human rights organizations seeking compensation or recognition for victims of the old order.
Yes, in the original sense of the word, as well:
Civilization: 1704, originally "law which makes a criminal process civil;"Anyway, I hope you're not sleeping yet, because here goes the important issue:
"We have to let every single Iraqi file his case," said Qais Abbas Ridha, a district court judge in Baghdad. "We should broadcast these trials to the whole world. Who knew before about the mass graves? Who knew that these criminals had taken half of Baghdad as their private property?"More than 5 millions of acknowledged victims of the German National-Socialism, more than 100 millions of ignored victims of the other variants of Socialism and those who survived them on both sides, confirm that this is indeed crucial.
This is the unique reason why Communist and Socialist parties all over the democratic world still have a legal status, still have candidates and elected representatives, still enlist new members - in short, still sap the democracies with their totalitarian ideologies - while Nazis or neo-Nazis are nothing more than disparate bands of harmless morons with no real influence.
It all starts with the acknowledgement of the crimes and nothing helps that more than the public broadcast of the criminals' trials.
Without that, their propaganda resumes and we end up, sooner or later, with the full gallery of Socialists, up to the
Without that, the Baa'th party may very well be part of Iraq's future, again.
The Iraqis have already written a draft proposal for a special tribunal that would judge senior members of the Baath Party. It envisions an all-Iraqi panel of judges with power to sentence the guilty to death, a provision that troubles European nations and international human rights groups.You mean it's not okay to hang Nazis anymore in Europe?
Fine. At least my advice to the Iraqis is still consistent, after all these months: don't count on Europe or otherwise care for her opinion.
Don't worry, you can. See the first Marine near you? Well he did as well, at least per procurationem: his Commander in Chief carried the message to the European nations and international human rights groups who apparently care a lot more for your torturers' human rights now than they did for yours just 8 months ago.
Europe is not a model of justice anymore. Just don't bother.
But few, if any, Iraqis express any ambivalence toward use of the death penalty in cases involving Mr. Hussein and his aides.Consensus. Great. Consequently, I'm sure that nobody in Europe will dare to challenge the Iraqis sovereignty.
It may be the only issue on which all political and religious groups in postwar Iraq agree.
Just go ahead. Judge them and when found guilty, hang them.
Such feelings are not unusual in wounded nations emerging from the trauma of dictatorship or civil war, according to human rights experts. But in advising the Iraqis, the experts have also prodded them to look beyond punishment to national healing, perhaps through a process similar to the Truth and Reconciliation commissions set up by post-apartheid South Africa.Jolly good. Where would we be without "human rights experts"?
In any case, I know where we would be with them: take any destroyed society from Russia to Cambodia and see how long it takes to heal it when the victims can still pass by their executioners and jailers in the streets, and when the later are left to die peacefully in there beds.
Telling people to look "beyond punishment to national healing" while they're still looking for the remains of their next of kin among unidentified mass graves is one of the sheerest nonsense that can be achieved by one of those "experts" directly landing from the oh-so enlightened post-modern Europe. Being "morally superior", how effective and measurable it may be, doesn't mean one should give up morals.
At least not on my count.
And don't get me started on the usual Leftist a-shit prop: if you're looking for an equivalent comparison, check Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia or Maoist China. But you won't weight the scales with South Africa, Mr. Expert in Human Rights.
" (...) they need to learn that there were others like Saddam Hussein in the world, that they were brought to justice and that reconciliation is possible."Brought to justice indeed. Like Pol Pot, Uncle Ho, the Great
Justice without punishment is a parody and reconciliation without justice is wishful thinking, particularly at the scale of a nation.
As the German Nazis before them, the Iraqi Nazis shall be confronted to justice and possibly be sentenced to death.
Not for the dead. Not for revenge. The very fact that the mob is filling lawsuits instead of going amok after the Baa'thists in the streets with ropes and torches or shearing their girlfriends in the French 1944 fashion proves that it's not about vengeance.
Not for revenge. For the living, and for the society they're eager to create and found on justice and the Rule of Law.
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