The return of the shredder

As cruel, amoral and heartless as the men who put him there

No, not the one in TMNT. Saddam's people/plastic shredder, remember that? It was one of the 'reasons' given by our sycophant in chief for invading Iraq. Along with WMD, Democracy (TM) and the size of his Little House on the Prairie video collection. So far no shredding machines have been found, no doubt they're hidden right next to the piles of WMD. No operators of such machines have been found either and no people actually involved in places where it would have been used have come forward. It's distinct lack of existence was an embarrassment for the pro war crowd, insofar as they have a capacity for embarrassment at all, which made me quite surprised to see this:

"I swear by God, I walked by a room and ... saw a grinder with blood coming out of it and human hair underneath," Hassan told the court. During the testimony, Barzan, sitting behind Saddam in the dock, interrupted Hassan, shouting: "It's a lie!"

SMH

Make no mistake, Saddam is a criminal who has undoubtedly committed crimes against humanity. He's been a crook since he first seized power with American help. He was a criminal when he met Donald Rumsfeld. He was a criminal when he invaded Iran and used chemical and biological weapons on them and Iraqis which were provided by America and Europe.

The resurgence of the shredding/mincing machine is a symptom of what's wrong with Saddam's entire trial. The Americans want him to appear to get a fair trial, to prevent him becoming a martyr. However there's no way they can give him a fair trial. Take a look at the crime he's charged with. A mass murder in Dujail circa 1982. Why not charge him for using chemical weapons and invading Iran? Why not any of his other crimes? the simple reason is this is the only thing they can pin on him that doesn't involve American or European complicity. That's why it's necessary to make up nonsense about shredding machines when talking about a dictator who had no qualms simply hanging people and forcing their relations to pay to get back their bodies. A man who quite happily and openly tortured, murdered and committed crimes against the peace, he did all these things with the help of his current jailors and they know it.

When I was a kid we wrote letters to the Iraqi government to free political prisoners on behalf of Amnesty international. I knew about Abu Ghraib before American soldiers were in charge of the rape and torture there. We were always told that although our letters didn't do much, they did something and I remember feeling that wasn't justice enough for the innocent men who languished in that and many other prisons.

What sort of justice does Saddam Hussein deserve? I don't know, that should be for a legitimate Iraqi government to decide. I do know that justice is not the wicked punishing the wicked.