[MRM]

I certainly want him to hang, but I think it is too soon. I want him to sit in judgment for all the crimes he is charged with. It may take a few years, but if the world sees him stand trial over and over again, his antics will wear thin, even to the Europeans, and history will judge his prosecution as just and a guide to how to deal with future war criminals rather than just another case of the winners hanging the losers.

This is important for a couple of reasons. First, we want the world to accept Saddam's convictions as legitimate. Second, we want a the trial to stand as good precedent for future war crimes trials, such as Nuremberg and the Kosovo trials have been. Finally, Saddam's victims deserve to see him stand in judgment for all his crimes, not just the first ones he got charged with.

If his convictions are widely accepted as just, and the product of a just trial, it enhances American prestige, serves as a moral guide to other nations, and prevents other countries from arguing that they can hang people despite procedural defects because America did it to Saddam.

I am not arguing that Saddam's first trial was unfair or procedurally flawed. From what I could see it was very well done. But it was not so above criticism that the Europeans and wacko left can't attack it. I think it is well worth our time and effort to try him over and over again, since his crimes are so voluminous and well documented, until there is general consensus among responsible nations and observers that he has been treated fairly and should hang.