It's Official: Saddam Hussein Found Guilty

I remember, during my stint in the Gulf War, talking to several Iraqis while visiting their towns on humanitarian missions. Every one of the villages we visited was destitute, and every one of the people I talked to blamed it on Saddam Hussein.

I also remember talking to another Iraqi man in order to keep him calm, while he was being treated in one of our medical tents for chemical burns all over his body. He said he received them when his village was bombarded by Saddam's enforcers. He said he was just happy to see someone who wasn't trying to kill his family. And, as he was being taken out of the tent after we patched him up, he insisted on planting a kiss on my forehead before he left.

Everywhere we went, the one question I was asked the most (yes, by the burn victim, too) was, "When are you going to get Saddam?"

And, of course, the only answer I could give was, "When George tells us to." Which they understood.

I've always found that strangely funny. They had never met George H. W. Bush once. But they knew his name, and they already liked him better than their own "beloved Uncle Saddam".

Flash now to the present day. Different war, different George.

How sweet it is, to me, that in the end WE aren't the ones who got him. All we did was drive him out of his glittering palaces and pull him cringing out of a hole in the ground.

This morning...the IRAQIS got him:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Saddam Hussein, the iron-fisted dictator who ruled Iraq for nearly a quarter of a century, was found guilty of crimes against humanity Sunday and sentenced to death by hanging.

The so-called Butcher of Baghdad, who was president of Iraq from 1979 until he was deposed by Coalition forces in April 2003, was convicted of the 1982 killings of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail.

When I heard the news this morning, I got to thinking about my friend the burn victim. I can't believe it's been fifteen years since I talked to him in that medical tent.

And I wonder what his kids are doing right now.

As for Ramsey Clark, who apparently just couldn't resist getting one last little insult in before the sentencing...

Well, I'll let the judge say it.

Bravo, Your Honor...on BOTH counts.

(Oh...and don't bother asking these folks what they think of all this. You already know.)

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Right Truth
Hot Air
Sister Toldjah (as covered by guestblogger Bryan of Iowa Voice)
TacJammer
Mensa Barbie