Saddam Husseins's trial is an American created farce. His chemical weapons used to kill Kurds were happily supplied by the US who supported Saddams actions against Iran.
The Bush Administration has decided to resume playing war games with the Indonesians despite the facts of their internal genocide of Acehnese,East Timorese and West Papuans about which they choose to ignore.
We now know that Kissinger and Ford approved the invasion of East Timor in 1975 which led to the killing of over 200,000 and additional thousands after the UN supervised referendum on Independence.
How many South American puppet regimes have the US defended who have also engaged in killings of their own populations who oppose their policies.
I agree the UN should be strengthened to intervene and as a prerequisite they might tackle a world wide ban on State Murder through executions. I understand that G.W. Bush was responsible as Texas Governor for a record number of executions during his watch.

If Saddam is to be tried ,it should be by an international court and Bush and his Administration war mongers should be arrainged beside him. They have killed as many if not more in their illegal invasion to steal Iraqi's oil.

170,000,000 people killed by their own ‘governments’ in 60 years. How many in the ‘evil’ Western countries many of our friends are continually rubbishing on OLO? How does it sit with their ideas on cultural relativism?

When the ‘coalition of the willing’ eventually got around to ousting Saddam, the weasels of the West took to the streets bemoaning the “invasion” of Iraq. The UN, Germany and France and were against any action on Iraq, as were the opposition parties of the willing countries. We have crackpots of the intelligentsia in the West still making excuses for Mao’s butchery. There is virtually nothing in the media about Sudan where murder and savagery continues. All that is left of Rawanda is “Hotel Rawanda”. Nobody wants to say boo to Mugabe, particularly as he was one of their really bad mistakes.

Nothing will be done by the West to prevent barbarity in Third World countries. Black despots are killing other black people, and it’s not the done thing to say anything negative about one’s non-white cousins is it, comrades

Yes, we live in a predominantly evil world where the driving forces are still ‘the predator survives’, ‘kill or be killed’, and ‘there is only one God’.
The west insulates its citizens from this unpleasant reality, but now and again the truth slips out, much to the outrage of many wooly headed academics and dreamers who wouldn’t recognize reality even as it was devouring them.
At least in the west we attempt to dress up our self interested manipulations and interference in foreign countries in guises that will placate those in our society that are unable to face the reality of human nature; whereas in the Middle east, Africa and many parts of Asia they don’t even bother to do that, as well as casually slaughtering many of their own citizens.
In which part of this world would you prefer to live?.

I'm glad I don't live in your world Eddy - people have the capacity for good and bad, I don't think we are predominantly evil. And has it ever occurred to you that those who oppose brutality and violence are perhaps not in denial but in fact more aware of the problem? Your attitude seems to be "the world's evil get over it tough luck", don't you think things could be better? Wouldn't it be better if more of us could be "insulated" from the harsh realities you seem so enthused about.

And Leigh, criticising the United States does not mean approving of regimes that are even worse. Don't you think the leader of the free world should perhaps set a higher standard when it comes to fairness and freedom than tinpot African dictatorships? And where exactly have you heard people saying Robert Mugabe is a top bloke - must be that damn leftist press I keep hearing so much about on here but never actually encountering in the real world.

And the article..agree with most of that, even if the author is a torture loving *&*&.

Hellothere.
“And Leigh, criticising the United States does not mean approving of regimes that are even worse. Don't you think the leader of the free world should perhaps set a higher standard when it comes to fairness and freedom than tinpot African dictatorships”

But unfortunately it does comes across as approving of the other regimes. What most do not get is this concentration on the US. Sure the US government is not perfect but since when can we truly compare to other more dangerous regimes. To be serious about freedoms more energy should be spent on where it true freedoms are being trampled, eg many countries in African, Iran etc.
The US is the easy target. Not the right target.

Maracas – if you truly want Bush and Co tried I suppose we can ask if the Iraqis think that is needed, before you. After the last few polls I thing you might be in the minority.
As to stealing the oil. Oil at 60 Dollars a barrel……that war really helped. Would have been cheaper to just let Saddam have his way and get him exporting again. Save themselves a war, Multi Billions in reconstruction, multi billions in war costs , 2000 US dead. Sure made sense to get oil?

Big Fish, I know the war looks like a ‘no win’ situation for the west (and will probably turn out that way), but try looking at the broader picture to see the rational for it:

1. USA relations with Saudi Arabia – the main ‘ally’ of the USA in the region, had started to sour ( links with sept 11 etc ).
2. The USA depended on Saudi Arabia for both its regional influence, and Saudi Arabia’s key role in keeping the price of oil down by over producing.
3. USA see the corrupt regime of Iraq where an unpopular minority group control a country with rich oil deposits, and identify it as a candidate for ‘democracy’, replacing USA’s dependence on Saudi Arabia.

As to the billions spent on the war – where has this been spent? – no prizes for guessing, with US companies with political associations to Bush cronies.
Of the $23 billion dollars in the Iraq treasury at the time US took control, only $3 billion was left to hand over to the interim Iraq government. The US administration had managed to spend $20 billion with surprise, surprise, hardly any records of where it had been spent.
My previous post was fairly flippant, but the message I was alluding to was that power corrupts, it has always been so, and always will be. At least in a democracy we can vote them out ( if we can find out what they have done), but there has usually been a lot of damage done in the meantime.
I could also go on about the idealists agenda forcing the west to fight with one arm tied behind its back – but perhaps that’s for another forum.