[lbo-talk] Re: Show Trials

Brian Siano siano at mail.med.upenn.edu
Thu Dec 18 06:21:07 PST 2003


joanna bujes wrote:


> Wow, you know about "Man in the Glass Booth"!!!! I don't quite see the
> relevance to the Hussein case, but if you know how I can get my hands
> on a video of that movie, I'd be very grateful. Did they ever make a
> video?

There may be a video version somewhere, but I remember Maximilian Schell being nominated for an Oscar in a film of the play.


> I thought of "M" because I remember being really impressed by the
> unfolding logic/arguments of that movie, which was about the
> apprehension, capture, and judgement of an "evil" man guilty of
> killing a child (I don't remember if rape was also involved.).
>
> I am repulsed about discussions of an "appropriate trial for
> Hussein." I think the first thing the "left" needs to say is that a
> trial of Hussein without a trial of those who helped put him in power,
> financed him, set him up, etc. is simply meaningless. And I refuse to
> go through the initial ritual hand-wringing about how "evil" I really
> think he is, but...."

As I said. There's probably not a chance of any kind of a trial being able to satisfy everybody. I'd _love_ to see the U.S. officials who supported Saddam face the music. But that's not likely even if the trial is conducted without U.S. interference. (Look at how much trouble Spain's had in prosecuting Pinochet. This kind of thing is never easy.) But bringing Saddam to trial is far better than the alternatives (like his escaping to a well-guarded resort in some other country, or committing suicide).



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