Saddam Trial Could Become a Fiasco

Charles Krauthammer is not impressed with the way the Saddam trial is going:

Of all the mistakes that the Bush administration has committed in Iraq, none is as gratuitous and self-inflicted as the bungling of the trial of Saddam Hussein.

Although Saddam deserves to be shot like a dog -- or, same thing, like the Ceausescus -- we nonetheless decided to give him a trial. First, to demonstrate the moral superiority of the new Iraq as it struggles to live by the rule of law. Second, and even more important, to bear witness.

War crimes trials are, above all and always, for educational purposes. This one was for the world to see and experience and recoil from the catalog of Saddam's crimes, and thus demonstrate the justice of a war that stripped this man and his gang of their monstrous and murderous power.

It has not worked out that way. Instead of Saddam's crimes being on trial, he has succeeded in putting the new regime on trial. The lead story of every court session has been his demeanor, his defiance, his imperiousness. The evidence brought against him by his hapless victims -- testimony mangled in translation and electronic voice alteration -- made the back pages at best.

``This has become a platform for Saddam to show himself as a caged lion when really he was a mouse in a hole,'' said Vice President Ghazi Yawar. ``I don't know who is the genius who is producing this farce. It's a political process. It's a comedy show.''

There hasn't been such judicial incompetence since Judge Ito and the O.J. trial. We can excuse the Iraqis, who are new to all this and justifiably terrified of retribution. But there is no excusing the Bush administration that had Saddam in custody for two years, and had even longer to think about putting on a trial that would not become a star turn for a defeated enemy.

As usual, Charles is right. Somehow we've managed to take a defeated enemy who crawled out of a spider hole looking like a wino at the end of a 10 day bender, and turned him into an outraged victim who is controlling his own trial. The set-up in the courthouse looks silly as well. If you look at the defendant's dock from the right angle, it looks like Saddam is a celebrity guest on Hollywood Squares ("I'll take Saddam to block, Peter!")

If nothing else, Saddam's trial could continue to feed the insurgency by displaying him in all his indignity as a still powerful force, instead of a meek defendant whose life is at stake.