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Bush needs to exercise his power of executive clemency, to at least extend a life sentence for Pres. Sadaam Hussein. His fate was never in anyone else’s hands but the USA. Not one Iraqi official, no matter how much of a charade they will try to create, would have been able to do this. It is all a US matter, pure and simple.
His approval of the summary execution, or rather, assassination in broad daylight of the Iraqi leader will accomplish nothing positive, neither immediate or long term.
It is self-evident that it will become an act of martyrdom and a banner for the Iraqi Baath resistance to wage a protracted war and on a more aggressive scale against the occupation.
It’s the same as if the US had invaded and captured Ho Chi Minh in 1959, and the S. Vietnamese puppets sentenced him to death for “crimes against the state”. The US had no right to invade Iraq, it was done under false or mistaken pretenses and they had every obligation to obey international law or at the very least, an international trial instead of a regional farce of a trial.
When Pres. Diem was murdered in 1963, it was a shock to Pres. Kennedy, who never authorized it, but evidence now confirms that the CIA wanted him removed and replaced with a purely military dictatorship. So they set the gears into motion for it to take place. To me, this is the closest thing I can visualize for the aftermath of Iraq after the execution. The assassination of Diem set loose a horrific chain of events that didn’t end until 58,000 US troops died, for nothing. The US created an unstable military dictatorship in Vietnam. It was bound to fail. So goes Iraq. Perhaps it will last longer and there will be more KIAs. That’s a great unknown.
Why unleash the devil, then? At least Bush can truthfully say he was a Christian if he pardons him out of a sense of forgiveness of sins.
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