Beyond our reach, dead or alive

It seems more likely than not that over the couple of days to a week that we'll find out that Saddam Hussein has died.

I'm not an advocate of the death penalty - I'll say that up front. But I'm also not a big fan of Saddam Hussein and I certainly won't shed any tears over that monster's demise. I have no doubt over his wretched guilt. And I think - in the long run - that the people of Iraq and the soldiers of the coalition will be safer without Saddam around.

But it seems to me that his trial and his imminent execution are kind of missing the point of what such trials ought to be about. Trials for war crimes or crimes against humanity or genocide or any of those acts which threaten to tip over from tragedy to statistics from the sheer weight of them aren't about punishing the guilty. People who order such atrocities are beyond our reach. Imprison them (to write books or hold out hopes of a re-established reign) or kill them to keep them out of the way, but you can't really punish them. Punishment requires an internal aspect a reflection on their acts which these people seem to lack. I imagine that Hussein will go to the gallows cursing his bad luck or his incompetent aides rather than his own rotten soul.

These trials aren't to make those who commit mass crimes to feel guilt. Their trials won't persuade the next megalomaniac to think twice before torturing and slaughtering their political opponents Their trials won't even produce a satisfactory explanation of why they did the evil they did. These big show trials for head honchos like those Nuremburg or Milosovic's trial at the Hague are about providing justice for the victims. A shoot-out (like the one resulting in the death Hussein's sons) or a suicide (like Hitler's) ends in the same result as Saddam's trial- a dead despot. But a trial allows the victims to have their story told. It allows the victims the satisfaction of making their perpetrator listen.

To be fair, trials of truth and hopefully reconiciliation probably need to take place in a world of relative calm and order to be of full value. And that is not the kind of place that Iraq is right now. But killing Saddam now, over a fraction of his crimes, robs his other victims of the chance to tell their tale on a world stage. Killing Saddam now ends the process of justice for the victims of his unspeakable acts.