I was surprised today. Charles Krauthammer is finally starting to see reality. Somehow the Death of Saddam Hussein finally brought him around from the die-harder supporter of this imbecilic war-effort to a genuine critic. It took seeing what allies we have there to make him see the light. He writes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR2007010401347.html
"Of the 6 billion people on this Earth, not one killed more people than Saddam Hussein. And not just killed but tortured and mutilated -- doing so often with his own hands and for pleasure. It is quite a distinction to be the preeminent monster on the planet. If the death penalty was ever deserved, no one was more richly deserving than Saddam Hussein."
As noted by Ed Shultz and others, nobody exactly cheered for this man. But Krauthammer notes that the only people who seem to think that they are "winning" this war are the Shiites, and that their concept of "winning" has devolved into a notion of humiliating and shaming Sunnis and seeking revenge for past insults and murders. He notes:
"...The only charge for which Hussein was executed was that 1982 killing of Shiites -- interestingly, his response to a failed assassination attempt by Maliki's Dawa Party."
"Maliki ultimately got his revenge, completing Dawa's mission a quarter-century later. However, Saddam Hussein will now never be tried for the Kurdish genocide, the decimation of the Marsh Arabs, the multiple war crimes and all the rest."
In other-words, Maliki wasn't really interested in justice, but revenge.
"Maliki's rush to execute short-circuited the judicial process that was at the time considering Hussein's crimes against the Kurds. He was hanged for the killing of 148 men and boys in the Shiite village of Dujail. This was a perfectly good starting point -- a specific incident as a prelude to an inquiry into the larger canvas of his crimes. The trial for his genocidal campaign against the Kurds was just beginning."
Charles Krauthammer concludes as many of us are starting to conclude:
Victory for us does not mean supporting the Shiite "militia" in their effort to crush Sunni rivals, and while we have an interest in protecting Kurds and Shiites from Sunnis, we also have an interest in peace, stability, and protecting Sunnis from Shias. If we can't do that there is no point in continuing to stand between these people and their desire to cut each other throats.
"We should not be surging American troops in defense of such a government. This governing coalition -- Maliki's Dawa, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and Sadr's Mahdi Army -- seems intent on crushing the Sunnis at all costs. Maliki should be made to know that if he insists on having this sectarian war, he can well have it without us."