> I'm judging the relative evil-doing of a U.S. president and SH -
> there's no question that the occupants of 1600 have killed far more
> people than SH could dream of. I'm talking political symbolism. It is
> madness for a "leader" of the U.S. antiwar movement to be anywhere
> near SH when he praises antiwar demos. If you don't have any idea of
> how hopelessly bad that looks - i.e., how many people it could
> potentially turn against the movement - then you're in the wrong line
> of work.
>
> Doug
>
What? You've never been in the company of anyone who mortally embarrassed you? In this case, Saddam, not Clark is responsible for any embarrassment.
I haven't clicked through to read whole articles, but how do we know Clark didn't try and at least raise human rights concerns the way people being "evenhanded" used to do sometimes when visiting, say, the Soviet Union.
As far as I am concerned, Saddam is a murderous thug who should take NO comfort from the fact that I am marching in the streets trying to stop my government from perpetrating a really stupid, destructive, and counterproductive war. If Saddam thinks so highly of the democracy (or something) that allows me to do that, he could certainly try some at home!
I believe there are ample reasons to put Saddam on trial for war crimes. You will note I said "put on trial." If he is lucky Saddam will have a principled lawyer who believes in some rule of law standards even for the most repugnant clients. The current UN fiasco is some kind of kangaroo court; if anyone in the UN is serious about disarmament, Iraq is a lousy test case. It's an equally lousy measure of UN "credibility."
And all the US invasion plans, Shock and Awe scenarios, and endless diplomatic armtwisting are no more likely to lead to democracy and resilient civil society in Iraq and the international community than decapitating the Palestinian police will make it easy for Arafat to end terrorism.
So bringing the matter back to Ramsey Clark, there is a big difference between apologist and agnostic. I have not thought carefully enough to form an opinion, so I have to remain an agnostic.
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