Trial of Saddam begins

Saddam: " Im still the president of Iraq." Predictable, yet it never fails to entertain. Looks as if Saddam will be employing the Milosevic strategy of refusing to acknowledge the validity of the court, codemning the illegal acts of aggression by Western powers which deposed him and mixing protestations of innocence with occasional "and they deserved it anyway"-type admissions. Meanwhile Human Rights Watch raises concerns about the fairness of the trial.

Whatever the concerns there's at least one thing this trial has over Slobba's in the credibility stakes: he's facing an Iraqi court of some sort as opposed to one in the Hague proporting to administer justice in the name of all mankind. Any repercussions from the trial can eventually be resolved within Iraqi society at some point in the future, as opposed to the situation in Serbia where the manner in which their genocidal tyrant was sold-out for foreign aid and bundled off to the Hague for his interminable on-going trial lingers like a sore which inflames Serb nationalism and sense of victimhood.