I am not speaking for myself but for his victims.  Hussein, dictator of Iraq, now captive by Americans and held for trial in Iraq by Iraqis must die for his crimes against his own people.  At least, that is the formula that has developed over the months of his incarceration.

In the study of historical treatment by victors over vanquished leaders the fate of the fallen was clear and unequivocal.  The victorious general would stand over the prostrate captive and strike with a sword, and the loser is thus proclaimed as deserving of his fate.  History is like that.  It is written by winners and only lately we have a spate of apologists for the losers trying to explain a great many things, among them a compassionate conservatism that seems to indicate we go easy on the losers for the present winner may be among them in the near future.

This is all ancillary to the question of the guilt or innocence of Saddam Hussein who not only made unnecessary religious war against his own non Sunni Muslims, but against Iran, Yemen (for land and oil) and provoked the U.S. which is indisputably the Great Satan. Saddam Hussein is a loser.  He lost the “Mother of all Battles” against the “Coalition” of nations willing to assist the U.S. in a trumped up war of attrition that goes on after Iraq lost and will lose again in the farce of creating a Constitution for a country that never had one before.

Hussein must die.  It should, like the show trial that is beginning tomorrow, be a show death. The Israelis who caught a minor official who was in charge of a major death campaign against a religious minority, Adolph Eichmann, used the opportunity to find out as much information about the crimes of the Nazis as they could and exposed the evils of what was committed to the world – that has not really understood or taken it to heart.  After all, time erases wounds and that is old stuff like history mostly is and it is better to forget if you can’t forgive.

Napoleon was sent into exile.  This was a curious end to a career that cost the lives of millions.  He should have been tried by a tribunal, like the international judges at Nuremberg and then executed as were the few leaders of the Nazi machine who were caught and given their just due.  But leaders of countries are different.

Saddam Hussein is not different because he was the leader of Iraq.  He killed the minorities he ruled and made war on neighboring countries.  He should be tried and that trial should be a major event in the lives of all living and those who will live in the future.  Hussein must die and we should never forget what he did and stood for.