Forget the Tiger, There's a Hussein in Your Tank

 I was quite shocked when I read the Pentagon press release declaring the capture of Saddam Hussein. That was how I first heard. I expected he had been blown to smithereens on the opening night of bombing; it was just a hunch. Still, it's hard not to be pleased that the American military finally rounded him up.

 But when I first saw video of his medical examination, I immediately thought of Wag The Dog's artifice. Perhaps it was the Castro-like beard that got that creativity injected into my conspiracy theorizing.

 But quickly, my mind turned to Casablanca as the Mairkin establishment began parading their success around the airwaves. Mairka that has spent over a year now parading their self-righteous globocop attitude about kicking Saddam's WMD butt because he is such a threat to everyone. Not that he was a good guy, but only global, multi-lateral action against despots is legitimate in a world where no one is acting like imperialists, while the USA's unilateral, oil-infested, hypocritical condemnation of a dictator whom they supported for so long is inhumane.

 Then this afternoon, Greg Palast posted and emailed around his article documenting the USA's decades-long support of Saddam. His article, called "Jessica Lynch Captures Saddam: Ex-dictator Demands Back Pay from Baker," brings us back to the old days when the Mairkins were supporting Sodom [as George "a thousand points of light" Bush, Sr. used to pronounce his name], sending him WMDs, approving his aggression against Iran and his Kurds and Kuwait, and greasing the wheels for Corporate Mairka to slink their juice from the land of more oil in the world than everywhere but Saudi Arabia.

 Simply, the USA has no moral integrity to be in Iraq.

 Mairkin Ambassador  L. Paul Bremer III declared today in the above press release, "For decades, Saddam Hussein divided citizens against each other. For decades, he threatened and attacked your neighbors. Those days are over forever." To self-righteously declare Mairkins have ended the tyranny they have so long condoned and aided, I can only think of Captain Renault in this poignant exchange from Casablanca:

 Rick Blaine [SADDAM HUSSEIN]: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

 Captain Louis Renault [USA]: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling [TERROR, GENOCIDE, ETC.] is going on in here!

 [A croupier hands Renault [USA] a pile of money]

 Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

 Captain Louis Renault [USA]: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

 [aloud] Captain Louis Renault [USA]: Everybody out at once!

 Why won't Mairka take this genocidal megalomaniac there, to perhaps the one court with the integrity and legitimacy to properly deal with this man's crimes? At least two reasons exist. The first is that if Mairka lets Saddam be tried in a court they cannot control, Mairkin complicity in his atrocities will undoubtedly surface [more than it already has], making them look as despotic as they truly are. w.Caesar doesn't need this going into a re-election campaign. The second reason is that the United States of America refuses to support the ICC. Unlike the 93 countries who have, Mairka will not allow its god-given sovereignty to be compromised to any higher earthly body with jurisdiction over crimes in or by their state. Here is yet another example of Mairka's blatant refusal to support multi-lateral global security in the face of unilateral military imperialism that, shock!, makes enemies hijack planes to fly into their most symbolic architecture.

 But this is quite understandable since the Mairkin government is guilty of numerous offenses over recent decades alone that if they plan to continue these tactics, would have them in the court for quite some time to come. Given Mairkin lust to hypocritically catch evildoers with WMDs while slowing destruction of their own chemical weapon stockpile and increasing research into small-yield nuclear weapons, it is likely that by rejecting the ICC, they are reserving the right to commit crimes against humanity in the future that themselves would be indictable under the ICC. In fact, Mairka is now designing what Amnesty International calls "impunity agreements" with countries to ensure they do not surrender Mairkin citizens to the ICC without approval of the Mairkin government. In fact, Mairka so opposes the ICC that despite being a signatory to the process that created the court, they made their dissenting wishes explicitly clear:

In a communication received on 6 May 2002, the Government of the United States of America informed the Secretary-General of the following:

"This is to inform you, in connection with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted on July 17, 1998, that the United States does not intend to become a party to the treaty. Accordingly, the United States has no legal obligations arising from its signature on December 31, 2000. The United States requests that its intention not to become a party, as expressed in this letter, be reflected in the depositary's status lists relating to this treaty."

 Not so surprisingly, other human rights thugs like Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Burma, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt and China have not ratified the International Criminal Court. And don't expect Mairka-ruled Iraq to sign up any time soon, thereby allowing ICC jurisdiction over that "country." But I still hold faint hope for Iraq because Mairka-pummeled Afghanistan signed on to the ICC on February 10, 2003. Jordan, the UK, and Canada have ratified their involvement with the court; Canadian Philippe Kirsch was even elected as one of the 18 ICC judges from among 43 nominated candidates.

 But at least w.Caesar has a clear sense of speaking irony without a semblance of a grin when describing the end of the Iraqi Batthist party holdouts blamed for strikes on Mairkin forces in Iraq: "there will be no return to the corrupt power and privilege they once held": held and reinforced with the help of Bush, Sr. and his buddies. Captain Renault has not left the building. [Addendum, December 15, 2003: w.Caesar reinforces the role of Iraqi justice in pledging Mairkin support for their trial of Saddam. The Mairkins want to help Iraq "to develop a way to try him that will stand international scrutiny." Silly despot, tricks are for kids. There is so little chance of this legitimacy in Iraqi courts.]

 The truth is, though, Mairka is merely continuing its pimp-job in Iraq not just for the corporate greed, but for the industrialized world's greed and too-little-questioned obsession with and dependence on oil. This is me and this is you.

 By the way, speaking of oil, I wonder if Iran has any. Maybe they're next in line for regime change.

 So what can all of us do about our complicity in this mess? Sell your car and stop contributing to continued mayhem. It will make a difference and you'll be able to see Mairka's disgusting hypocrisy far more clearly once you stop pumping despots into your gas tank.

Stephen Buckley
Copyright 2003
12.14.03