Saddam Hussein is captured. "We got 'im," said Viceroy Jerry Bremer in Baghdad.
It's big news, of course. It may have no noticeable effect on the level of resistance.
Saddam was captured, we are told, without a shot being fired. Thinking of other famous resistance movements, it's doubtful that Fidel Castro or Ho Chi Minh would have been captured alone with no bodyguards or troops of some kind protecting him. Saddam may well have had some elaborate means of communcation with the resistance. But the circumstances of this capture do not make him look like the nerve center of the guerrilla war.
There have been no reports so far that any "weapons of mass destruction" were found along with Saddam. He did have a pistol on him.
The capture of Saddam alive is likely to be a mixed blessing for the Bush Administration. The biggest single thing Saddam could do the help the Administration would be to direct them to any remaining stores of WMDs. Don't hold your breath on that one.
Given the Bush team's amazing ability to mess things up in Iraq, don't be surprised if they're soon engulfed in controversy over the treatment of Saddam. They would be well advised to follow international law to the letter in this case. A war crimes trial under international auspices could be a powerful way of exposing Saddam's misdeeds and strengthening the credibility of the US and Britain.
But the cold fact is that a trial of Saddam Hussein can hardly avoid some airing of the various ways in which the American government actively assisted Saddam's Iraq up until Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Some American firms had dealings with Iraq long after that. The Administration will have to be willing to accept some embarrassment for the United States if they want to gain the benefits of a trial of Saddam Hussein.
The only real alternative would be to declare him an "enemy comatant" and hold him indefinitely without a trial. That approach has its own risks, not least the chance of making him a martyr figure.
1 comment:
Great point, concerning his being the "nerve center" of the resistance! I hadn't even thought of that! Thanks!
Post a Comment