Saddam is The Man Who Knew too Much

by Eric Margolis

Saddam Hussein's capture is being feted in Washington as a political and personal triumph for President George W. Bush that further increases his chances of winning re-election next year.

Many Americans, misled by the administration and its media allies into believing Saddam was somehow responsible for the 9/11 attacks, are lustily cheering Sheriff Bush and his posse. They are unaware the demonized Iraqi leader used to be Washington's man in Mesopotamia.

Nor do they understand the astounding price of this manhunt: a war costing over $160 billion US that violated international law and America's democratic and moral traditions; surging hatred of the U.S. abroad; over 3,000 American military casualties and many thousands of Iraqis; and the ongoing burden of colonial occupation.

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So it's unlikely the Bush administration will allow an open trial for the rogue dictator. He knows far too much. Better to bury Saddam in prison like another petty despot who dared mock the Bush family - Panama's former general, and now U.S. prisoner, Manuel Noriega.

http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_dec21.html

And the truth would set us all free, wouldn't it.

"Can't have that. Wouldn't be right." If GWB didn't say it, he thought it.

"Israeli commentator Ze'ev Schiff suggests the White House might offer Saddam a deal: a life prison sentence in exchange for a false confession that he had indeed made and hidden weapons of mass destruction, thus absolving Bush and VP Dick Cheney of the accusation of having made extravagant lies to whip up war against Iraq..."

would go for that. His hatred for the Bush's must be so deep by now that he'd rather die a martyr (in his own mind anyway) than give any concessions to the Bush cabal.