The killing of Saddam

The killing of Saddam eliminates a very important source of information. The trial over his crimes was merely a theater piece, enough theater to get the average individual an impression that he had a fair trial.

There is no doubt that Saddam was guilty, but he was not killed for these crimes. He was killed simply because he knew too much. Like in a good gangster movie, they killed the man before he spoke.

It is not a coincidence that there are so few interviews with Saddam after he was imprisoned, that his monologues during the trials were cut short, not televised or had him thrown out of the court.

Saddam knew too much about the special US/Iraq relationship. He could have told the world what kind of assistance and under which terms he received that assistance for starting the Iraq/Iran war in the 80's, who provided the biological weapons, which scientists, which companies, which countries provided the funding.

The man had the answers to too many questions, and would have been very valuable to humanity and for prosecuting everyone involved in the illegal trade of banned weapons and bringing to justice the whole network of corruption, the war makers and the war profiteers.

To his victims, to those that survived his brutality this might be a temporary relief, a limited payback. It would have been much better to utilize his knowledge and find and bring to court everyone involved, and have everyone of them judged.

There was no need to kill Saddam today, over killing Saddam after further trials had taken place. He was killed today over the crime of killing 148 people in 1982 over an assassination attempt. We never got a chance to hold a trial over the assassination of the Kurds, about his regime treatment of detainees, the Iran/Iraq war, and the invasion of Kuwait, nor did we get any answers to the Oil for Food program.

It all fits in place: they picked the one crime that could be relatively self-contained and one that would only drag "iraqi criminals". Any other trial would have dragged the good reputation of too many people to the streets.

The court did not ensure that all the open questions were answered.

He was swiftly killed because the man knew too much.