Hussein's defense attorneys warned that a guilty verdict and sentence of death would sparked renewed attacks against U.S. and other coalition forces in Iraq and lead to a wider civil war. They also accused the Bush administration and Maliki's Shiite-dominated government of colluding to schedule the verdict so it came two days before crucial mid-term U.S. elections, hoping to give Bush's Republican Party an electoral boost. Iraqi and U.S. officials have denied the charge.
This trial really has been a farce. The more noteworthy farcical events:
- The first chief judge resigned, "complaining of political interference in the case."
- A former U.S. attorney general, Ramsey Clark, who was working as a defense attorney was thrown out of court (and fired) for describing the tribunal as "a mockery of justice."
- Three other defense attorneys were murdered during the trial.
Clearly, this hasn't been a fair trial. Hussein is almost certainly guilty of many, many murders. But even the Nazi leadership had fair trials at the end of WWII. Fair trials for war criminals makes it clear that this isn't simply vendetta or revenge killings, it's justice, as best as humanity is able to carry out such a concept.
But Hussein's trial in Iraq is not justice. Oddly, it's not even really vengeance, per se. Hussein, and his three murdered lawyers -- and all of the hundreds of Iraqis that have died and will die due to this trial and execution being decided and carried out while the country is spinning out of control -- all of these people are essentially being murdered by George the II and the Republican party, desperate to squeeze a few more votes out of the gullible American public. In otherwords, the Republicans are trading human blood for votes.
Chapter 38 of the Tao te Ching: 38. Ritual
Well established hierarchies are not easily uprooted; Closely held beliefs are not easily released; So ritual enthralls generation after generation.
Harmony does not care for harmony, and so is naturally attained; But ritual is intent upon harmony, and so can not attain it.
Harmony neither acts nor reasons; Love acts, but without reason; Justice acts to serve reason; But ritual acts to enforce reason.
When the Way is lost, there remains harmony; When harmony is lost, there remains love; When love is lost, there remains justice; But when justice is lost, there remains ritual.
Ritual is the end of compassion and honesty, The beginning of confusion; Belief is a colorful hope or fear, The beginning of folly.
The sage goes by harmony, not by hope; He dwells in the fruit, not the flower; He accepts substance, and ignores abstraction.